Hello all. Today is three weeks since the surgery and probably two till I get out and start leading something of a normal life. Huzzah!
So in the past couple years and exponentially more in the past several months I've been getting deeply involved in comic books and graphic novels. I never really thought my life would take that turn but it did and here we are. Freshman year of college I took a graphic novel class and did not know it was about really really big comic books until the first day of class. That quarter I read Blankets, The Watchmen, Black Hole, Ghost World, Maus I &II, Persopolis, and Jimmy Corrigan. Now, in my top ten all time favorite books are two of those. Weird, right? Really recently Roger and I started a pull service at Laughing Ogre and my eyes have been opened wider. I'm currently reading Alan Moore's Saga of Swamp Thing and it's already kind of blowing my fucking mind grapes. Awesome. Also, I just realized that the new movie Coraline is by Neil Gaiman of Sandman fame amongst other things so now I kind of want to see that and I'm usually not a movie person. Something to do with not being able to suspend my disbelief. It's really held back how other people percieve me having not seen any of the Star Wars movies. I'm sorry, but only kind of.
I've posted here about writing a bunch of short stories to later be gathered in what is tentatively being called 'Slight Rebellions' and I am slowly making progress with them. I cannot yet tell if I think it is insanely cool or very repetitive that I use the same people in just about all of my stories. We'll see. Lately I've been working on one called 'The Thought of Love over the Atlantic' and I don't think it sucks. I think I'm about a third of the way done but I like where it's going so I'm going to throw it up here for (hopefully) some feedback seeing as our DEATH BY DRAGONRY WRITING WORKSHOP is currently on hiatus due to, well, me. By the by, I totally all caps-ed that in something of an attempt to let others know of it because we would love more people to write with us. So here this is. I hope you like it in some way.
The Thought of Love over the Atlantic
Jude got home from work around 8, grabbed a beer, and sat down on the opposite end of the couch from myself. He pulled out his church key (bottle opener) and cracked the top of the domestic, “Lucy’s moving to Europe.”
“Elliot told me a couple days ago.”
“Have you cried yet?”
“I will end your life.” I hadn’t cried and didn’t plan on doing so anytime soon. Jude’s question, sarcastic as it was, was valid in a vague and distant kind of way. I did very much not want Lucy to move to Europe because I liked her on several different levels. She was cool, funny, and all that other ‘good personality’ shit but beyond that she was gorgeous. Out of my league gorgeous. The kind of girl that I should have been afraid to talk to but I usually just felt a general sort of ease around her which was both nice and inexplicable.
“You’re going to her party tonight right? I think you’ll cry tonight.”
“I’m going to shoot you so hard and then I’m going to stab your face off and after all of that I’m going to mail pieces of your body to your family every month like they ordered a fucking Encyclopedia Britannica of your anatomy. But, yeah, I think I’m going.”
“Don’t give me that ‘think’ bullshit. You know you’re going. The real question here is what are you going to say to her?”
I’d thought about it all day and I came to my conclusion after the bourbon I’d had for dessert following dinner. I was going to tell Lucy that she was going to get on that plane the next morning and somewhere over the Atlantic she was going to realize how deeply she was in love with me. Saying this to her made sense to me because I’d never met a girl that I thought so blatantly wanted me and yet she denied my every advance. Every time we hung out she would laugh at my every joke and be immersed in my every story. Jude, whether he would consistently admit it or not, also knew of Lucy’s hidden love for me but he found much more humor in her denials than myself. “I’m going to tell her that she’s going to get halfway there and then realize that she loves me.”
For an instant Jude was silent before he gave a bellowing laugh, “Foolproof. Completely foolproof.” His laughter didn’t faze me. I didn’t need his approval and I couldn’t think of anything vastly better to say to her anyway so it didn’t really matter. He continued, “And what exactly do you think that line will accomplish?”
I’d not thought it out past the line. I’d imagined getting in my car, going to the party, talking with her briefly, and then telling her how she would love me. There was nothing after that. No consequences. No reactions. “It doesn’t matter. The important thing is telling her. Besides, if it’s really embarrassing or something, I mean, she’ll be in Europe by tomorrow anyway. It certainly won’t matter then. I guess the way I see it she’ll either fall madly in love with me or nothing will happen. I don’t really have anything to lose here.”
“Sometimes I envy the way your brain works.”
“Why thank you.”
“It’s like a mouse running in a wheel.”
“I hate your soul.” I got up, went to my room, and grabbed a towel for the shower I desperately needed to take. I was hoping one would cleanse both body and soul but in much less clichéd terms. I got in and the cold water struck my body bringing first pain then numbness. I soaked my hair blinding myself and reached up for some shampoo only to knock over a couple empty beer cans that were resting on the ledge. Jude saw no greater pleasure in the world than his shower-beers and left the cans in the shower like trophies. He loved when girls would be over and see them because they made him look like a far stranger alcoholic than anticipated. Really though, the kid just liked to drink.
On my second effort I got my hands on some shampoo and got the job done with as much ease as possible. Just as I started to finish up my business behind the mildew covered glass doors the water started to warm up so I savored it momentarily before getting out. At the white-turning-brown I brushed my teeth and accrued my hair in something resembling a style.
From inside the bathroom I yelled to Jude, “So are you coming or no?”
“As much as I love seeing your tears, I’ve got to stay here and beat MegaMan X.” He wasn’t joking.
“Why? You’ve beaten it before.”
“To prove to myself that I still can.” Dead serious.
“Right.” I finished up and went into my room where I already I thought out what I was going to wear. I started off with my seemingly ageless brown running shoes worn over beige houndstooth socks. Fucking classy. The my jeans because, well, no reason not to wear jeans. I threw on my navy and white plaid short sleeve button up mostly because I wanted to show off my new ‘614’ tattoo above my elbow though it is unlikely I would admit to anyone that I wanted to show it off. That would be quite uncouth of me. On top of all that I had my short black pea coat which was sexy as all hell with the collar put up. It made me look like a cross between an old sailor and a superhero which is usually the look I go for. What really put me over the top, though, was my orange and blue scarf which I sewed myself. Yeah, that’s right, I sew. Suck it. The thing that really set this scarf apart from the crowd was that I sewed a Versace tag to the end of it. I looked incredible. It was just the right amount of style mixed with the perfect air of haphazard nonchalance. I wanted Lucy to have an attractive memory of me if nothing else.
As I was making my way for the door I checked with Jude one last time, “You sure your priorities are in order tonight?”
He was already started in on figuring out the best way to conquer Boomer Kuwranger, “I’ve never been so sure in my life. But call me when you’re getting ready to get out of there. I’d love to hit the Dube before last call.”
“Fair enough,” I crossed the threshold of our door, “Godspeed with Boomer.”
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3 comments:
i fucking love the laughing ogre. you do not even know. i am a little obsessed with vertigo comics. and by a little bit, i mean i'm "fables girl" in the LO.
and i hope jimmy corrigan is one of the two in your top ten, because it is certainly in mine. along with watchmen. and persepolis.
also, one of these days i will leave a comment actually pertaining to your writing.
actually, its blankets and watchmen. there was a lot to jimmy corrigan that just flew miles above my head i think.
and, you know, don't rush yourself on shamelessly complementing my writing.
-tyler
i haven't read blankets yet, much to my cousins chagrin. Now I will actually have to check it out. And I had to read Jimmy Corrigan twice before I really got it and loved it.
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