Sucker For Sob Stories
She was the kind that stopped to pet stray puppies. But food was only ever surreptitiously slipped to bit-bound horses ferrying kids on beaches and abandoned cows. Dogs and cats had their fans worldwide but who thought of these forgotten ones? She did. Impartial with love, she tried to distribute equally what she could and ended up caring for the underdogs (or horses). Fair share for everyone. They each had their stories.
Saturday afternoon found her clutching an envelope, mixed excitement and resignation. She didn’t even really like shopping. But one did what one must. She thought of last week’s phone call, begging, pleading with her to do her part to make one life easier. She sighed and thought, no human being should have to beg that way. So she squared her shoulders and walked in. A new credit card gleamed in the darkness of her wallet. It wouldn’t be lonely for long. Not as long as she was around to see it got its fair share.
@ Brad: Brilliant as ever. So who received that wake-up call…and was promised a callback later…which never came? 😉
Having written this, and now that I read this again…it sounds like a story written by Lahiri in Interpretor of Maladies. Remember that one? Awhh…Shucks! Dannggittt!!!
~.Quaint finds.~
It was a decision taken in a blink of an eye that flew him from the West coast to the East.
His new apartment smelled like fresh paint over musty thoughts. The walls were slanting, the floors were sloping, the lights off the center, and the windows were everywhere. He loved every bit of it. In the months to come he was to discover many things that wouldn’t come to notice to a visitor. You had to live in the house for the house to reveal itself to you. The little cross on the patio dooor. The half-moon scraped off the pain beneath it. The mirror that opened in the wrong direction. The glass beads stuck at odd angles. Every week had a gift.
The 2nd week got him a shiny, luxurious car. The car seemed to share the hide-n-seek quality of the house. He found a copy of the bible stashed under the ashtray inside the car. A gold paper coin hidden under the gear handle. A shark tooth tied to a bolt. Little oddities that made him smile.
All that 15 months ago. He had enjoyed life ever since. A partner found in the folds of the complexities of life, money was sufficient to make him not think much, friends a bit more than few, and some golden.
He gave her a wake up call. Her waking up sound was the best, and very uninhibited, as raw as one could ask for. He thought of all the good things that life had to offer him until then. His eyes caught a small enclosure just below the glove compartment. He was driving at 80 miles per hour.
Steering with one hand, he leaned over to open the tiny door. And out fell a very used plastic card. It lay quietly on the floor. He itched to lean further and pick the hide-n-seek delinquent off the floor of the car, but he was getting late to work and was in no mood to stop the car and do the deed.
He let his left hand guide the steering. Keeping his eyes on the road, his curious hand clawed the floor randomly for the credit card. Out of annoyance, his curiosity got the better of him. He lunged ahead, eyes first, to grab the card. The oncoming trailer fell on his fate’s blind spot.
A momentary lapse of reason. From L.A. to New York; a hop that he never regretted, until then.
(Typos inclusive)
@ Kshama: Thank you! Trot over to Ammani’s post and see the others..they’re fab!
Its a nice post. Enjoyed reading it.