Tuesday, August 05, 2008

There He Is


McDonalds:

Jimmy has cut off all his hair. He now has a C-shaped area of white shiny skin surrounding his very darkly- tanned skull.

The ice-cream ladies are late. The Cougher shoulders open the door with some difficulty. "There he is," she says to the other. They are looking at me. Behind them, cutting across the parking lot, is a man who, if he weren't wearing a bright peach polo shirt and pink shorts with white support socks, would look just like Victor Hugo. A gouty walk that implies a cane.

Behind the counter, one of the employees is asking the others, "Hey, do you smell ginger?" "In this place?" one says.

In one of the booths, on her mother's shoulder, a child replicates her spankings as she eats her Happy Meal, her fingers splayed out stiffly. She counts out the blows, stops at ten, starts over.

2 comments:

JeffTD said...

In creating this halo, Jimmy didn't realize that some would mistake the white glow for holiness. As an athiest, Jimmy is distraught that people are coming to him for miracles, surely he is a saint with that halo. It is really unfortunate that in his desire to stop looking monk-like he became saintly, and for the rest of his years will be capable of performing miracles for the believers of things he doesn't believe in.

Davo said...

sounds like a short story start!