Archive for the ‘David Kopaska-Merkel’ Category
Small World
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
So Jimmy, his mama want sugar to bake him a pancake, so she send him to the store with a dollar for a sack of sugar. But soon he come running back. He got no sugar.
“Mama,” he say, “ain’t no store. The street, she just end past Auntie Louise trailer.”
“Jimmy, go ask Auntie if she have sugar,” his Mama say.
Soon Jimmy come running back, with a cupful of molasses. “Auntie out of sugar,” he say, “she send molasses.”
So Mama stir up the molasses, flour, and she see she have no egg.
“Run Jimmy, fetch me an egg from the chicken house, so I can make you a pancake.”
Jimmy, he run out the back door, but he come right back. “Chicken house gone,” he say, “but they was one egg in the grass,” and he give it to her.
Mama crack the egg into the bowl and she stir up the batter. She pour the batter in the skillet. This will be one fine pancake! But when she flip the pancake, it land on the floor and roll out the door.
“Jimmy,” Mama shouts, “fetch me that pancake!” He run out the door and down the road.
The pancake roll past the mimosa tree and its pink fans hanging down, past Auntie Louise trailer and her lilies, over the plank bridge, and Jimmy run after. When he get to the other side of the bridge the store be gone, but the pancake keep rolling and Jimmy keep running. He running by the cow pasture (the cow, she chewing her cud), and he see his house just there beside the road in front of him, chicken on roof. The pancake keep rolling past house and mimosa tree, and Jimmy, he run faster, for to catch it. Bridge, cow (still chewing), house (Mama in the doorway), tree, cow, house (Mama shouting), tree. Pancake keep rolling and Jimmy keep running. The road, she keep ashrinkin’, and pretty soon it be just Jimmy and the pancake, the road rolling up behind his heels and he catch the pancake just before everything be gone. Jimmy take a big bite. It the best pancake he ever have.
The end
Quarter for Your Thoughts
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
“Hey, there’s a message in this bottle.”
Kai looked up. Jenine held up her beer. Sure enough, a piece of paper floated near the bottom. There was some writing on it.
“Looks like a fortune. Drink up so we can read it.”
“Don’t be silly. It would stick to the inside of the bottle and we’d never get it out.” She drained her water glass, poured the beer into it, fished out the note, and laid it carefully on the table. She leaned forward to read the tiny letters that almost completely covered the paper.
“Where is that girl with our food?” Waiting for Jenine to puzzle out the note reminded Kai how hungry he was. “Carla! Can we have more chips and salsa? The hot kind. And more beer.”
Jenine frowned. “It’s hard to read. The font is weird. Anyway, it starts ‘Don’t tell anyone the contents of this note.'” Her voice trailed off.
“And then?! Is it like a chain letter? If you don’t do what it says your dog will be repossessed?” While Kai was talking, Jenine was reading. Then, she carefully folded the paper in half and tucked it in her pocket.
Now it was Kai’s turn to frown. He leaned forward and whispered loudly. “Your nipples are hard. Only two things do that and I don’t think you just read some beer-note sex. What’s going on?”
Jenine whispered back, so quietly he could barely hear her. “It’s a prediction. We should get out of here. Now.” She stood up.
“No! What? Why do you believe that stupid note? I’m staying right here till I get my chimichanga.”
“Wherever that note came from, they knew things. About me. I think it’s real.” She backed away from the table, motioning to Kai to get up.
He leaned back and folded his arms. “I want my lunch.”
The window exploded inward and a red Ford F150 plowed into the table and Kai. Jenine screamed and jumped.
She ran to the truck, but when she got there she could see that Kai’s entire chest was crushed. She stood up and turned around just as a police officer ran in. He was tall and broad-shouldered. His eyes were the color of the summer sky.
“Hello Officer Smith,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Have we met?”
“Not really.”
“You’re bleeding. Sit down, I’ll be right back.”
“I know,” she whispered.
The end