Friday, August 25, 2017
The Quartet
-Your wife forgot something,
so drove back downtown.
She says you can reach her
on her cell.
-Never turns it on.
-Oh?
-Just likes patting it in
her jeans. Reassuring.
-I...notice little disturbances,
uh, interruptions of light.
Rustles.
-Sidney Carton.
-Cat?
-Most surreptitious.
-And literary! Well it all sounds nice.
You, wife, cat in little Ractal.
-The town that even Ignominy forgot.
-And you call Ragtag, of course.
-Are you a prophet?
-Can be a part of the job.
-Well...which of the three are you taking along?
-We'll get to that.
-If I may make a suggestion? You should
have a substitute to plug right in.
-A good one, but, alas, I travel alone.
-But not on the return leg? At any rate, the balance can be restored here pretty quickly.
-Is that the most important thing? Balance?
-What else?
-I'll have Sidney come out so I can get a look.
-You must praise him! Otherwise he's impossible!
-Your wife is patting her phone. She's at the
bottom of Skinner Ravine. Nasty! But she
won't suffer. Sheriff Gathers will tell you that.
-Sad. I only have good things to say about
Death Valley.
-Her nickname, naturally. Will you mention that
in the funeral notice?
-Must. Many don't know her real name.
-The desert's an odd place.
-We embrace that.
-I can see that.
-And it, us.
-Sidney Carton! What a total and absolute sweetheart!
-Well done.
Labels: behavior, death, desert, eccentricity, place
