Saturday, December 17, 2011

 
A Virtual Wichita


When Missy was seven her father took a foreman's job at Cessna in Wichita. They lived temporarily in Delsen's Boarding House where she had to perform being a good little girl at the dining room table with Miss Carruthers, retired
elementary teacher, Jingo Reilly, traveling construction boss, and others.

The neighborhood featured Merkin's Homemade Candies, and Mrs Merkin would cut you a sliver of rich fudge as a gift.
Missy avoided the shop when she saw Mr Merkin behind the counter for he was not quite as generous, insisting you pay
a penny for the principle of the thing.

Missy certainly had a penny but felt uneasy near
Mr Merkin’s sermons.

Her most lasting impression of the boarding house came
late at night with Chuck Greeson from the Chrysler agency,
and Lowery's Last Stop, trudging up the stairs cursing, bumbling into chairs, eventually dropping his heavy shoes
on the floor, one after the other.

One hot evening, only one dropped. She and older sister
Lil whispered of the absent other shoe.

It proved the last night there as her parents had rented
an apartment near the plant.

When she tells the story to new boyfriend she calls
Silicon Maxy-Mac, he informs her she must get that
second shoe to drop, that such incompleteness has
made bad karma since.

He therefore devises a virtual Wichita. For the shoe he synthesizes several catalog sounds, but they will not do.
He then fills a sneaker with coins, stuffs newspaper in
to keep them from shifting.

Buys the best fudge in Sunnyvale.

His research reveals Prairie Dog Philosopher led
nighttime radio ratings. So he records a corny poem
about looking a man in his face and seeing your own
if both are honest. Then a raucous Jerry Lee Lewis!

Comes the critical night he gets Missy to relax and
close her eyes, hand feeds her crumbles of fudge
while playing the radio segment at low volume and
in buzzy offstage mode. He then shoves chairs around
and, after about ten beats, mounts a table and drops
the weighted sneaker.

Next morning, Missy decides to run. Been developing
a small pot.

After, sweaty and panting, she cruises the kitchen
looking for something healthy for breakfast.

Her sister texts her from Wichita: sad! cndyldy x-(
omg u luvd hr!





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