The trick to flying safe, Zoë always said, was never to buy a discount ticket and to tell yourself you had nothing to live for anyway, so that when the plane crashed it was no big deal. Then, when it didn’t crash, when you had succeeded in keeping it aloft with your own worthlessness, all you had to do was stagger off, locate your luggage, and, by the time a cab arrived, come up with a persuasive reason to go on living.
In the morning we heard Traynor was dead. Some said fat, some said heart, some said alcohol, some said drugs. One of the children called from Detroit. Them dumb fans of his is on a crying rampage, she said. You just ought to turn on the t.v.
But I didn’t want to see ‘em. They was crying and crying and didn’t even know what they was crying for. One day this is going to be a pitiful country, I thought.
In the morning we heard Traynor was dead. Some said fat, some said heart, some said alcohol, some said drugs. One of the children called from Detroit. Them dumb fans of his is on a crying rampage, she said. You just ought to turn on the t.v.
But I didn’t want to see ‘em. They was crying and crying and didn’t even know what they was crying for. One day this is going to be a pitiful country, I thought.
Randy is twenty years old and already has two children. He is not married. His girlfriend is tall and skinny and mean-looking. Randy says she fucks like a cat. The old people say that the morning of the day the water came up, they loaded Aunt Plutina Williams into the bed of Old Man Bill Burdette’s new truck. Somebody asked Aunt Plutina why she closed her windows and locked her doors, and she said, Why you never know, sometime I might just want to come back. Junie Wilson has seen her. I am afraid that someday I will see her, too. Maintain a constant pond level. The last time I slept with Elisabeth, two hearts beat inside her.
Randy is twenty years old and already has two children. He is not married. His girlfriend is tall and skinny and mean-looking. Randy says she fucks like a cat. The old people say that the morning of the day the water came up, they loaded Aunt Plutina Williams into the bed of Old Man Bill Burdette’s new truck. Somebody asked Aunt Plutina why she closed her windows and locked her doors, and she said, Why you never know, sometime I might just want to come back. Junie Wilson has seen her. I am afraid that someday I will see her, too. Maintain a constant pond level. The last time I slept with Elisabeth, two hearts beat inside her.
Musa’s passing destroyed her, but, paradoxically, it also introduced her to the morbid pleasure of a never-ending mourning.
Musa’s passing destroyed her, but, paradoxically, it also introduced her to the morbid pleasure of a never-ending mourning.
I’ve always had a stiffness in my bearing, owing to my guilt at being alive.
I’ve always had a stiffness in my bearing, owing to my guilt at being alive.
That’s the best proof of our absurd existence, my dear friend: no one is granted a final day, only an accidental interruption of life.