Elated allow hillI cut off the light and turned my back to him. For a long while he lay behind me, motionless. In the beginning, a gay sixteen-year-old boy, desperate to convince himself of the falseness of that first adjective, tried to get a sixteen-year-old girl to show him her braces. Nowhere. We’re alone in the world. ~ ~ ~ On page three was a stamped photograph of the dead man, jejune like all passport photos; a fairly young man with slicked-back hair, signed underneath: Jack Mortimer. “Threadley Brothers Mortuary,” a woman said with liveliness you wouldn’t expect from an undertaker. “You’re exceeding expectations,” he said. “Another thing about Theon was that he was a natural-born filmmaker. Not like these Hollywood fools with their automatic robots and ridiculous, impossible love stories. Theon saw the world he lived in today, the world we all live in. He knew what people wanted and what exhilarated them. He knew what you needed even when you didn’t. I didn’t fall asleep, and got up and called Hei?ur. It was almost nine o’clock. Only for Christmas and birthdays. “Does your girlfriend know you’re here?” I asked instead. Soon they all flitted away to a bush of yellow flowers on the far side of the pool. He studied the weary man. Atticus had been the only one to know all the runner marks, except Webb, Devon had declared in front of the company the night he died. It could be no coincidence that Webb was now a prisoner. We set off on our journey between the shelves, side by side, pushing two shopping carts that have merged into one double cart. We never slip up in our driving, gliding gracefully past islands of goods, and the wandering shadows of other customers shoot around the corners when the double cart comes sailing. It turns out that we’re on the same course, because he has forgotten several items and is taking a reverse route through the store, starting in the produce section. And we’re both in need of some of the same hygiene products, like toothpaste and cotton swabs. It’s a comical shopping trip with a gentleman whose name I don’t even know and who asks whether he might drive me home. Coco gave me an evil stare.. |