Passers-by (a short story)March 22, 2007

I’d received my acceptance letter in the mail, it was from my college of choice. That evening I decided to take a walk out on the beach. The beach is close no matter where you live in San Diego, but so is the military base. The draft numbers had been issued today.

In order to celebrate properly I bought a fifth of Bushmills. The man behind the counter asked me when I was shipping out. I couldn’t help myself, I grinned. I said I’m not going to fight, that’s what this whisky is for. The man’s face was grim, and he said he’d seen a lot of other guys my age come in today and buy bigger bottles of whisky, but for a different reason. I paid for my fifth and asked the man if he knew anyone who’s been drafted. He said, yes, my brother’s son.

I’d finished half the bottle by the time I got to the beach, now I wished I’d gotten the bigger bottle. I took a sip and watched the black ocean waves come and go. I heard a patter of feet slapping wet sand, then I saw a couple of guys running along the waterline, directly at me. One was right on the heels of the other. Maybe the first guy had stolen something from his pursuer. Or maybe the pursuer was homicidal and sought out a perfect stranger for sport. Or maybe they were both chasing a third guy. Or maybe they are separately running for exercise on the beach at night in the full moonlight. My lack of understanding made the situation exciting.

I stepped back and the men ran by. I caught a whiff of bourbon. Then both of them began to laugh and they slowed, then stopped, then dropped to the ground in exhaustion. They were chuckling, kind of half-way laughing to themselves. After a few moments one of them pushed himself from out of the sand and sat indian-style with his head hanging. The other sat up and sat likewise. They sat in silence, they no longer chuckled. In the moonlight I saw the lines in their foreheads, even from a distance.

Then one of them looked at me. Hey man, he cried, waving an arm. Got any more of whatever’s in that bottle? Both of them eyed my whisky as I walked toward them. I took a pull and handed it to the one who’d spoken to me. He had kind of a round, tall forehead that made him look like he had a big brain. He took a long pull. He gave it to his friend, an emaciated guy, who took a sip and handed it to me without making eye contact. I screwed the cap on. The brain guy told me to sit down. I did, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. We all three watched the waves.

When do you go out? asked the brain guy.

I don’t, I said. I just got into school. The skinny guy looked at me for the first time, so did the brain guy. Their mouths were open.

What about you guys? I asked.

We got our numbers today, said the brain guy.

Which numbers did you get? I asked.

Both of them spoke at the same time: One. I shook my head. They shook their heads. I handed the bottle to the skinny guy.

He unscrewed the cap.

The Book of EchoesMarch 16, 2007

“Each of us, helplessly and forever, contains the other.”
~James Baldwin

Click to read — The Book of Echoes

Press for SouldMarch 7, 2007

Epilogue: Well, the final show went off well.  I’ve come to a few conclusions about live performance.  First, that they are exciting.  Second, that I think I prefer the atemporality of written fiction to the actual stage.  When your work is going on on a stage, anything can go wrong.  Someone’s phone rings, someone forgets a line, and the show may suffer.  Written work, if read under unfavorable circumstances, may be reread, given a second chance.  I like that, I think.

I don’t know how or why, but Sould has popped up in a few papers around Fresno. The Bee is the Fresno paper. My show is just a blurb in this article, but it’s a top-5-picks-of-the-Rogue-Festival kind of blurb. The guy who’s doing the picking I don’t know, but he knows talent when he sees is. The Colegian is the campus paper. (When I heard that there would be an article in the campus paper I pshawed, thinking campus papers are worthless. But then I thought about it: there are over 20,000 students at Fresno State. That’s more people than the entire city of Georgetown, Tx, let alone Southwestern. The Collegian is a far cry from the campus “news” I learned to avoid in college. And at any rate, press is good for the show that’s coming up this Saturday.)

Collegian - “Fresno State Has Rogue Spirit” (Front Page of Features Section)

Fresno Bee - “10 shows you won’t want to miss at this year’s festival”

Watch a video of Sould (As performed by Tony Bonds and Jeff Waldrop, Cathedral For a While, Summer 2006)

http://www.cathedralforawhile.com/mov/sould_480×360.flv