When the Whip Comes Down

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Well yesterday seems to have been a better day than today. And the fiction I published yesterday seems to have struck quite a chord what with all the comments, all the ‘what the fuck was that?’. Really!

Last night was pretty much quiet, Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, with the Senate vote broadcast live during Rachel’s show. The bailout bill was passed 74-25, now it goes to the house.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were spot on, Colbert had James Taylor on his show, promoting his new album which is all cover versions of songs he really likes. I worked with James Taylor years ago, really nice guy, no star trip and the people around him were very nice too.

James was enjoyable, saw him sing (I’m A) Roadrunner, originally by Jr. Walker. There was another song following the commercial break, but the DVR didn’t catch it. Caught the news and then I snoozed.

Slept really well, woke up it was dark out. Bill kissing me goodbye, telling me he can’t wait for Sarah Palin to go down in flames.

I was wary even while lying in bed and told Bill, ‘Don’t be cocky’. Ran into Casey on the bus. Mr. Animated he is. We talked about the tonight’s debate, how gosh darned inept Sarah Palin is. Lucky Casey is going out of town with the missus this weekend. I’m staying put of course. He was off on his way to work via the subway, I walked through midtown, past the Tai Chi people in Bryant Park.

Stopped in Smilers on Fifth Avenue, West Indian Tony is still out. Been out a month I think. He’s got a bum knee and staying on his feet behind a grill all day is not the way for it to heal. Hopefully he has insurance, but being a short order cook in a deli, it doesn’t seem likely.

Heard from another old friend from my old neighborhood, Donna who has custody of her late sister’s son. Apparently Donna’s sister was married to an abusive guy, who abused her and their son. So now Donna has custody, but she and her husband are getting ready for a court battle over who the son should be with.

A family that loves the kid, or an abusive father who never really cared for the kid in the first place. I used to play with Donna until she got all girly.

Work was quiet and awfully slow. At one point this morning, Greg Stevens and Vivek sat me down to have a talk with me. It was about how things aren’t going so well, and if it continues to be this way, they may have to cut my hours, from a five day work week to a four day work week.

They wanted to keep me in the loop, and also said if I had any other offers I should seriously consider those offers. Unfortunately I have no other offers. That did my head in somewhat. I spent most of the day walking around in a daze.

It’s not necessarily the end, but the writing seems to be on the wall unless Greg and Vivek’s plans go through. If they don’t then the ship is going under. I left at 4:00 rather than 4:30. Nothing was going on and I had nothing to do. Didn’t feel like staying much longer.

Walked across town listening to Mambo’s from the 1940’s and 50’s and enjoying a Padron. Caught the bus and ran into Casey again, this time I was the animated one and he was not so much.

I walked over to the library and picked up The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. Blurbs by Howard Zinn and Studs Turkel on the back cover, so she’s in good company. That’s it for now. Just anticipating the debate tonight and hoping it goes well for Joe Biden.

96 Tears

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Fiction

Young Ava Wolfe got her act together when she was just 14. She set out leaving her parents home somewhere in the suburbs and headed out on the highway with just a shoulder bag and an idea. What that idea was she never said. It wasn’t much of a highway, not a super highway, just a county road actually but the locals called it a highway.

Ava knew that there were super highways out there. She heard about them, saw them in books she said. It wasn’t an easy life for Ava. For 14 years she was known as Lisa’s sister, and Ava was itchy to get out of the shadow of her little sister. That stuck in her craw.

The shadow of a younger sister was humiliating. An older sister or brother, Ava could easily understand being in their shadow. But a younger sister, who’s only claim to fame was winning six spelling bees in a row was too much.

Still Ava put on her brave face and looked east. She knew there was something out there for her, and that it was only a matter of time until she found out what it was. Until then she still had school, and she kicked a can while walking alongside the shoulder of the highway.

Not too many cars out so early in the morning and the sun was just rising. She disliked going to school in the darkness. Not that she was scared. Nothing really scared Ava. She missed the sun, the warmth and the light.

She side stepped a dead possum which might not have been dead she thought as she gingerly approached it. She thought the possum was playing possum, but when she saw a pool of blood and a distended tongue hanging out of it’s pointy face she figured that it was dead.

The school wasn’t too far away and she wished she had the courage to cut school for the day, like she had heard that some kids do. She knew that wouldn’t be that good an idea though. Too many people would notice her absence. So Ava dutifully stepped over the barrier separating the highway from the woods and walked the well trod path towards her school.

The sun was starting to give off light as she accidentally walked into a spider web. Ava made a noise of disgust and tried to rub off whatever was left of the web on her clothes. Ava saw her favorite teacher’s car in the driveway.

Mr. Davis. She liked him a lot, but didn’t know what to do about it. She heard that he might be gay but that didn’t matter. She did notice he didn’t wear a wedding ring though which gave her hope. Ava wasn’t like those other girls writing over and over Mr & Mrs So and So hundreds of times in their notebooks.

No, Ava had it running endlessly in her mind that someday Mr. Davis would pick her for some extra credit and would declare to her when they were all alone that she was the woman for him. Ava even went so far in her fantasy to have Mr. Davis declare that he was gay, but suddenly had special feelings for her, which he never felt for a woman before.

As Ava crossed the parking lot, she felt something hit her back. She turned around to see the dead possum she passed by earlier on the pavement. In the distance she heard laughing. It sounded like Martin, her sister Lisa’s friend.

She hated Martin. She saw him wiping his hands on his jean jacket, wiping the blood of the possum on it. Turning back around she saw Mr. Davis turning away from the window in the faculty lounge. She hoped he didn’t see what Martin had done, but felt he probably had.

And so began another day in Young Ava Wolfe’s life.