With his feet toasty and besocked with heavy wool, Luther fell fast asleep and woke up even faster. Nora was roaming. She was in the bathroom flushing and flipping lights, then she left for the kitchen, where she fixed an herbal tea, then he heard her down the hall in Blair’s room, no doubt staring [...]
‘Oh hush, Luther’ ‘Are your feet wet?’ ‘No. Yours?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then why’d you ask?’ ‘Just worried.’ ‘Do you think she’ll be all right?’ ‘She’s on an airplane. You just talked to her.’ ‘I mean down there, in the jungle.’ ‘Stop worrying, okay? The Peace Corps wouldn’t send her into a dangerous place.’ ‘It won’t be [...]
I hope you step in frozen water, Luther grumbled to himself. He fumed and muttered other unpleasantries. He switched the heater vents to the floorboard to thaw his feet, then watched the large people come and go at the burger place. Traffic was stalled on the streets beyond.
How nice it would be to avoid Christmas, he began to think. A snap of the fingers and it’s January 2. No tree, no shopping, no meaningless gifts, no tipping, no clutter and wrappings, no traffic and crowds, no frui
And for what? I’m fine, Mom. Haven’t seen you in almost an hour. We all love each other. We’ll all miss each other. Gotta go, Mom. The engine was running though Luther didn’t remember starting it. ‘You forgot the white chocolate?’ Nora asked, fully recovered. ‘No. I didn’t forget it. They didn’t have any.’ ‘Did [...]
A crowd had stopped to watch the old Mexican decorate his cigar store window. He was plugging in little robots who trudged through the fake snow, and this delighted the crowd no end, Luther was forced to move off the curb, and in doing so he stepped just left instead of just right. His left [...]
The express line was, of course, slower than the other two. Chip’s outrageous prices forced its customers to buy in small quantities, but this had no effect whatsoever on the speed with which they came and went. Each item was lifted, inspected, and manually entered into the register by an unpleasant cashier. Sacking was hit or miss, though around Christmas the sackers came to life with smiles and enthusiasm and astounding recall of customers’ names. It was the tipping season, yet another unse
A stock boy was working hard on a display of Christmas chocolates. A sign by the butcher demanded that all good customers order their Christmas turkeys immediately. New Christmas wines were in! And Christmas hams! What a waste, Luther thought to himself. Why do we eat so much and drink so much in the celebration [...]
And every shop was full. Another Santa clanged away with the same bell outside the cheese shop. ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer rattled from a hidden speaker above the sidewalk in front of Mother Earth, where the crunchy people were no doubt still wearing their sandals. Luther hated the store-refused to set foot inside. Nora bought [...]
He wheeled into a space near a burger joint and demanded, ‘Give me a list.’ ‘I’ll go,’ she said, but only in feigned protest. Luther would hike through the rain and they both knew it. ‘Gimme a list.’ ‘Just white chocolate and a pound of pistachios,’ she said, relieved. ‘That’s all?’ ‘Yes, and make sure [...]
‘Do you really think so?’ ‘Sure.’ Whether he did or he didn’t, what did it matter at this point? She was gone; they couldn’t stop her. He gripped the wheel with both hands and silently cursed the traffic slowing in front of him. He couldn’t tell if his wife was crying or not. Luther wanted [...]
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