I used to find joy in running,
but that was before I met you,
all wrapped in clouds,
eclipsing the moon.
Sometimes when I’m running,
I like to look over my shoulder.
I can still see the glowing clouds,
and my old home.
I’ve grown to hate running,
I haven’t stopped to this day.
If I run to death,
at least he’ll meet me halfway.
Babies are born,
All the time.
A Baby was just born,
Only a few people cared.
“Will you tell me already, the tension is becoming to much to bear.”
“Just drink your coffee I don’t want to talk about it right now”
“Are you kidding me? This is huge, astronomically huge news involving a great deal of money.”
“How do you know it’s a great deal of money? It could very well be a tiny speck of money for all you know.”
“Listen here Libby, I make nine dollars an hour, any lump sum of money in which we’ve acquired for doing virtually nothing is a great deal to me.”
“We’ve acquired? Last time I checked I was the one who got in the terrible car accident. I was the one who had to be taken to the hospital via ambulance. What took you so long to get to the hospital anyways?”
“It didn’t take me that long, you probably had a distorted understanding of time after being the victim of a terrible drunken driving accident. Granted the car stereo was acting up again, kept spitting my burnt CD’s back at me, you know how I cant drive without music.
“Your car stereo?”
“Where is that fucking waitress, I swear they avoid you just so you don’t ask for your free refill.”
“I was in the fucking hospital and your fiddling with your stereo?”
“You know I can’t drive without music, will you just tell me how much you got for your settlement so we can end this.”
“I don’t think you deserve to know.”
“Were not leaving this diner until you tell me.”
“Thats fine with me, I could live happy here for some time with my new found wealth.”
“…….”
“……..”
“So it is a lot of money then?”
“I need to sleep at your place tonight, Kristen’s boyfriend is coming over and you know how they get.”
“I know how he gets, she is merely a product of his actions, very disturbing. In any event I may not even be sleeping at my place tonight. I’m going to play pool with rick and maybe hit a few more bars while I’m in town.”
“What does that have to do with where you sleep?”
“Well I wouldn’t want to end up drunkenly ramming my car into a beautiful young lady tonight would I? Excuse me miss could i have a refill on my coffee? Please and thank you? If it’s not too much trouble? I know it’s a real mad house in here and you’ve probably got magazines to read.”
“That was rude.”
“I’ve been waiting here for some time, you know I really love you to death and I wish we could just be honest and not have secrets from each other, so why don’t you just take this pen, here’s a napkin, and write down the amount and we’ll put this whole thing behind us.”
“Fine.”
“Thank you, see its not that hard, you’re doing great, were gonna get through this together”
“Here.”
“Hmmmm, thats funny, last time I checked the words fuck you were not a denomination of American currency.”
“I guess that is kind of funny.”
“Why must we do this Libby, are you punishing me for the whole stereo incident? Oh thank you kindly miss it smells simply divine.”
“Cream or sugar?”
“Oh no its quite palatable how it is I wouldn’t dream of adding a condiment to your delightful….. what kind of coffee do you guys use at this fine establishment anyways?”
“I’m a girl, one girl, not several men. I don’t know what kind of coffee we use, it comes in a giant silver bag with no writing on it.”
“HAHA! Well then, fair, fair enough, and thank you so much again for this simply marvelous cup of silver bag coffee.”
“I think she liked you. Maybe you should start dating her instead of me.”
“She’s not getting a tip.
1. A young boy innocently plays with his plastic army men in the driveway. Suddenly his big sister comes taring up the driveway on her huffy bicycle and rides through the middle of his make believe skirmish causing heavy casualties on both sides. His sister laughs hysterically and rides away. The young boy begins to cry when suddenly a U.S. Marine emerges from the shadows. The marine kneels down in front of the crying boy and puts his hands on his shoulders.
“How would you like to get the training you need to put an end to your sister and your parents for good?” He says.
The young boy wipes the tears from his eyes as they both stand together. The two walk hand in hand into the horizon.
2. Two guys sit on a couch in a smoky studio apartment playing Halo 2. Suddenly the TV explodes and their controllers turn into pistols. The 5 foot bong in the corner transforms into a bazooka, and their cat turns into a dog. An Army Sargent emerges from their flaming entertainment center and puts out his cigar on the coffee table. The two guys with their mouths open and one forces out a “Whoa man!” The army sarge flips the table over and it smashes through a nearby window.
“You can kill Aliens for reasons your to stoned to understand, so why not get paid to kill humans for reasons we wont even waste your time with!?” says the sarge.
“Dude our bong!, and why did the cat turn into a German Shepard?” shrieks one of the guys.
The sarge lets out an angry groan, pulls out a pistol and puts five bullets in the stoner guys chest.
“Oh my god! Barry!” Shrieks the other stoner.
Barry slumps over and blood starts pouring out of his mouth. The sarge begins to reload his weapon. The other stoner looks down at his once xbox controller turned pistol. The stoner lifts up the gun and points it at the sarge.
“You don’t have the balls, you’ve got to be army strong to use that thing” says the sarge.
“I’ve grown a lot since you exploded out of my TV” says the stoner as he unloads a full clip into the sarge.
The sarge falls to the floor with a splash of blood. The stoner runs up to comfort him.
“You’ve done well…… i think you’re ready… for the next step…. theirs a chopper waiting outside for you. Please take care of my wife…. sexually…. argh!” says the sarge with his last breath.
The stoner stands up and drops his empty clip out of the gun onto the floor. He takes one last look at Barry and the sarge, shoves a clip in his gun, and runs out the door grabbing the bazooka bong on his way out.
3. Three friends sit on a porch drinking light beers and chain smoking on a beautiful winter night.
“Man its totally rad that Rick is home for Christmas!” says one of the boys.
“Yea i cant wait to see him, i wonder if he’s allowed to watch Dragon Ball Z on his army base.” says another.
The roar of an engine can be heard in the distance and begins to close in on the friends. A muscle car comes careening towards them and does a 360 stop in the front yard shooting mud and turf all over the friends and the porch. AC/DC can be heard blaring out of the muscle car as the door opens. A muscular man in a green jump suit emerges from the car with two beautiful women in swimsuits under each arm. He has bullets strapped all over his body and an automatic rifle slung over his back.
“Rick?” says one of the friends.
“What up turds!” replies rick.
“What the hell happened to you, who are those beautiful women?”
“I joined the army and stopped listening to Phish dumb ass, didn’t you get the notarized memo?”
The two girls in bathing suits begin to giggle. Rick hurls the two girls into the air, does three push ups, back flips onto the porch, and then catches the girls on his shoulders.
“So what have you turds been up to huh, playing D&D? HAHAHA” Says rick.
“Yea actually Tommy is now a level 7….. hey aren’t those girls cold?” replies one of the friends.
“IDIOT! These are android swimsuit models, they don’t get cold!” Rick screams wildly.
Rick pulls a bottle of whiskey out of his pocket and breaks the neck of the bottle off with his teeth. He begins to bleed from the mouth and pours the liquor all over his face. The three friends all stand looking on in amazement at Ricks new found success.
“Where can i sign up” says one.
Rick Cracks a smile. The three friends, Rick, and the two android swimsuit models all begin to laugh together. The image fades to black.
No one wants to be alone. That’s what I kept telling myself. That’s what you have to tell yourself when your in the passenger seat of a Toyota driven by a girl who has the word “Cunt” tattooed on her lower lip. I guess it would have been wrong to ask why we were going to a street corner to play guitar for money, this being our first date.
“Cold?” She said reaching over to turn the heat up. Her arm was pasty white, virtually hairless, not a blemish in sight. It asked to be touched, an arm like that should never be alone.
“A little bit” I lied.
I focused on the road and the beautiful fall colors as she popped in a CD. Indie-Pop began to fill the car. I couldn’t help but tap my foot to the predictable drum beat. The band was unfamiliar to me. It could have been recordings of her friends band that they burnt on a disc after updating their myspace. It didn’t matter.
“Doesn’t this band kick ass?” she said.
“Yea, I really like how lo-fi they are.” I lied.
As I spoke to her I used the opportunity to study her face carefully. White, White as the driven snow, intensified by her lush black hair that rolled down to her shoulders. Her lips were thin and shiny, they flickered as the sunlight passed through the tree branches to meet them.
Together we sat in the car, side by side, listening to the music as she drove us deep into the heart of the city. I started to get bored and began to crave a cigarette. As i put a few of my senses to the test on the car I knew it was an impossibility. The Toyota was clean, almost sterile. I couldn’t put my finger on what it smelled like but I was sure it was what office cubicles must smell like. It was a newer model, probably only two years old, and it hugged curves like a toy car on a magnetic track. I started to feel anxious, like if i didn’t have a cigarette as soon as possible i might start to lose my mind.
“I think I’ll park in this lot” she said pulling into a grocery store parking lot.
“Good idea” I said clutching my lighter in my pocket.
We started to snake around the lot when suddenly her white face began to lite up.
“There they are!” she said.
Who the fuck are “they” i thought. I began to feel like i was in over my head.
“Oh, were meeting people here?”
“Oh yea, my friend Larry and his brother wanted to jam, they called when i was on my way to pick you up.” she said smiling.
“Oh, cool!” i said forcing a smile.
“Larry’s really good at the guitar” she said.
“……… Awesome!” i said.
All i can think about is holding that familiar friend between my finger tips, lighting it up and then taking that first wonderful drag. Now i have to meet Larry and his douche bag brother. We parked and i immediately hopped out of the car and opened the trunk. I began fiddling with my guitar case pretending i didn’t notice Larry and his brother. After a few moments of staring blankly at the trunk i pulled my guitar out and walked over to Larry’s car.
As i approached the group i noticed a tattoo of a fetus on my dates right leg. I was so fixed on it i almost walked right into Larry’s brother.
“Hi, I’m Joey!” he said extending a hand.
“I’m Dave” i said loosely shaking his hand.
“Larry” said the other scrappy looking boy.
Larry’s voice was a deep depressing monotone. He wore an over sized flannel and pale blue jeans. His brother couldnt have been taller than 5 feet, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans. He sported a mustache that looked like millions of microscopic strands of dirt.
“I’m going to run into the store and use the bathroom.” said my date.
Just like that she was gone. Now i was alone, stranded here in the parking lot of a grocery store with two perfect strangers. Larry set down his guitar and opened the passenger door to his car. I glanced over at Joey, he had his hood up, hands in his pockets staring at the ground. He resembled some kind of half man half squirrel.
This was it, my big moment. I pulled a cigarette from my pack and placed it in my lips, pulled out my lighter and lit it slowly making sure to get all the edges.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Relief.
Comfort.
All these things and more were granted to me at that moment. Larry emerged from his car brandishing a 6 pack of beer. He handed one to his brother and pulled one out for himself.
“Got an extra cigarette” said Larry as he sat down on the pavement.
“Yea, sure” I said pulling one out for him.
What did I care, Larry seemed like an alright guy.
“You want a beer” said Larry.
His brother sat on the pavement next to him.
“Ummm, Yea.” I said.
I sat down on the pavement facing Larry and Joey. Larry pulled a beer from the pack and handed it to me. I cracked it open, took a long drag from my ciggarette, and then took a sip of beer. I Began to feel at ease. I didn’t care about the soccer mom who shook her head at us as she walked past, or my strangely tattooed date who abandoned me to go to the bathroom.
“Got a lighter” said Larry.
“Yea” i said handing it to him.
Larry lit his ciggarette and took a long drag. As he pulled the cigarette away i noticed that he had a chip in one of his front teeth. We sat smoking and sipping our beers for a moment, Larry shared the cigarette i gave him with his brother. I glanced over at Larry and he looked up at me and smiled.
“So how did you meet Sarah?” he said.