"I dream of a hard and brutal mysticism in which the naked self merges with the nonhuman world and somehow survives...Paradox and bedrock."-Edward Abbey

15 June 2011

Say Nothing

It was years ago, when he phoned from half a world away to leave her. She kept him on the line, draining his calling card in recompense. I sat with her in a gin joint, commiserating over cocktails. Cheshire cats' smiles and talking, but saying nothing.

He came back, almost a year later, all circling and slithering. Dressed in a rumple suit of hipster intellectualism and a grunge boy goatee. The scent of want was his cologne. Intention played obviously across his words and actions.

At one moment, she looked interested, and the next mortified. A mix of playing once around the dance floor and fear of almost a year before. Others made comment to the fact. On one such occasion, she got up, and disappeared into the crowd. Whether it was from mortification and discomfort, or the need for another drink, was up for debate.

I found her when she returned, and asked her if she was okay. For all the eloquence I might possess, that simple inquiry seemed to be the best. She gave me a wry smile and wink.

"It ain't no thing," she said. "Let him try. He knows I'd still rather go home alone."

I smiled right back at her. A cheshire cat's grin. Without saying a word, I told her;

"That's my girl."

Later, I saw her harmlessly making out with a friend who was always just that. Some of the others wanted there to be more to it, but why queer and complicate things? A little game to be played at the juke joint. No one gets hurt. I smirked as I disappeared into the hot shadows of an early summer night. She might have gone home alone that night, but I knew she'd be okay.

10 comments:

  1. Wonderfully poetic, understated and well told story.

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  2. This for some reason reminded me of an old song in an old film: "play it cool". Sometimes silence says all you need it to.

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  3. Interesting. I'll have to find that song and give it a listen now.

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  4. Love this piece. Perfectly balanced without revealing too much of the ending.

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  5. I'm sure there are lots of things that could be said about the beauty of this post but I just wanted to say, I loved it.

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  6. Wonderful piece, I loved it. Not sharing too much is one of my favourite ways of writing a story.

    I would like to invite you to write a guest post for me. You can find more information about it here: http://crazythaughts.blogspot.com/2011/06/note-apology-and-guest-post-challenge.html

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  7. Well, thank you and I'm very flattered. I'll check it out, and perhaps try to figure out something for you.

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