after many years, i decided to delete my short fiction blog bologna in prosa. in memory, i am posting my favorite short pieces from the Lou series below. they are not in any specific order.
1.
with margie near sleep in his arms, lou began to talk softly to the darkness.
"younger i listened closely to voices that seem engaged with something better, to people i thought rose just above the care of mundane things, but the years have shaken the voices, and now only a few remain steady while so many seem defeated, seem laced with fear. and daily, i chart my time and say, yes, she’s a good person, but then again, so what? good people stand outside the gate trembling and trying to get somewhere. the great make a choice--perhaps the right one, perhaps not. choice, change--that is what we are faced with every moment."
2.
It began as a relatively harmless activity. Lou would pick a person and follow him or her for a few hours, stopping for coffee when he or she went into a building, always picking up and following as soon as the door came open again.
One mid-morning, he spotted a middle-aged white woman with frizzy brown hair, a white shirt with no bra, and dark pants and decided she was the one for the day. She was walking down the sidewalk, talking on the phone, so it was easy for him to look at her closely and make up a story for her life.
She was probably an architect, a head at some firm. She was dressed casually now, but he could easily imagine her putting on something more sexy to win over a client or two—nothing physical, just something to tempt. At this moment, she was probably on the way to meet a city inspector or an engineer.
He watched her step off the curve, but he did not say anything as she walked in front of a car speeding through a yellow light.
3.
Lou boarded the subway car at Sheefield at 10:15 on the night before his thirty-third birthday. The platform was mostly empty. A few young people waited for the train for what he could only assume was an exciting night out on the town. His own nights had not been like that for years. In fact, since he started his present job as a database manager for Elliott & Nott, he had cut himself off from most of the people he knew. Standing on the subway platform made him think about how he needed to change, to get back into communal life.
When the train came, he boarded and sat down. The train pulled away, and he watched the lights of the different houses pass. In each couples or families gathered. He could see them in flash-bys sitting at tables or watching tv. The only other person in the train car was a blind woman wearing a headscarf with African colors. She sat a few rows away from him. She was talking to herself—the more she talked, the louder her voice became.
“Bound for stars broken open, for colors. A dog standing on a fence. Three red angels burning open. Have to go into the desert where nothing grows.”
She shook her head as she spoke. At times, she looked in his direction, while at times she stared at the advertisements above her head. She repeated mostly the same thing over and over.
When they reached Fullerton, she got up to leave, but when she reached the open door, she stopped and said without turning, “Stars broken open”
She then stepped off the train, the door closed, and the train lurched southward.
Living in Chicago, one gets used to strangers’ personal oddities, to people talking to themselves, throwing cards in your face, playing odd personas, but something was different about this woman. She weirded him out. Like bangs deep at night, she made him paranoid.
He didn’t get the chance to ponder her for long, for just before the Chicago station, a voice came through the mostly empty cars, “Due to a malfunction in the line, our train can go neither forward nor backwards. Since we are in-between stations, there is no easy way off the elevated track. The Fire Department has been called to come empty the train. Please wait patiently.”
4.
“The entire East Coast! Holy crap! How could you let that happen?”
“Look, Hctinktink, I am not used to the settings,” Lou replied.
“We’re supposed to be making first contact here, not killing millions of these humanoids. How are we going to talk to these beings peacefully now that you have just killed more humanoids than ever in their history? I might not be the smartest Lufktanksaniti, but I do know that these beings will be mad at us.”
“Why do we want to talk to these creatures anyway? They are violent. They have almost destroyed everything of real value on their planet already.”
“We want them to come to work for us because they can handle the atmosphere in our gallium mines on Uterion98. They are the only known beings in this sector of the universe who can.”
“Let’s broadcast a message in their languages telling them how sorry we are that we killed so many beings.”
Just as Hctinktink began to broadcast, he noticed that the Earthlings had fired their most powerful weapons at his ship. He laughed and sent probes to destroy the nuclear weapons.
“Fuck it,” he said. “We can keep using robots in the mines. If anyone asks at headquarters, we’ll tell them that we accidentally blew up the planet.”
5.
the lufktanksaniti high council began to wail when he returned.
"why did you destroy the humans? what was wrong with their planet? it was our best mining option."
lou smirked and said, "look, they were hostile. they attacked us without warning, and we felt that it was our duty to destroy them. after all, in another century or two, they would have developed the technology to come after us whether or not we were trying to using their planet for mining? they are like cockroaches--they survive in any part of the known universe and come in when you least want them."
"hctinktink, is he telling the truth?"
"yes. i agree with everything lou says."
6.
hiroshige was waiting for lou. when he arrived, hiroshige spit in his face and said, "i create beauty, while you collect only a field of fragments."
7.
at 11:00 p.m. Lou entered the bar and found a seat on a soft bar stool next to the counter. the place was a too trendy for his taste, but it was the only place he saw in his short walk around the block. he ordered a beer and turned to the woman sitting next to him, a woman at least ten years younger than him. she smiled and asked him where he was from. he knew she was taking pity on him for being all alone, but she was cute, so he began to tell her about himself. she didn’t seem impressed, and in a few minutes made up a good excuse to free herself. after he finished his beer, he left.
8.
as lou licked the envelope, he chuckled. the envelope had the return address of marge, his last fling. it was filled with Burt's Talcum Powder and addressed to senator bushammie of colorado.
9.
she slapped him just after he asked her for the directions to the men's room. he couldn't understand it. what was the problem?
without responding, lou walked away. he had to pee, but he did not want to be beaten.
10.
lou walked up to the chinese woman during the PutaRight Singles Night. he was supposed to spend five minutes getting to know her before moving on to the next woman. from the look in her eyes, he knew that he had no chance already and should just try to be nice to get through the five minutes.
the first thing she said was, “wow, buddy, hard life?”
that was enough for him to know he was not getting her phone number.
11.
a numbing sensation came over lou as he realized that he’d forgotten to adjust thruster number 14 and that now some poor suck of a space tourist was probably falling towards the earth with no hope of life and that he’d probably be fired, though quietly, because the incident was clearly his fault and they’d probably have him on some security camera walking by the thruster without even looking.
12.
Marlina sat next to him, and immediately he began fantasizing about her. She asked him about the information that was being passed out at the doorway, and he handed her his copy with a mumbled reply. She read through it quickly and gave it back without even saying thank you.
All through the policy speech, he watched her hands shift and the gold bracelets she was wearing slide back and forth down her arm. Lou imagined himself licking her arm, working his way up to her shoulder.
She turned and whispered to him, “Do you mind not staring at me?”
13.
Lou is officially retired. He has been for 20 years, but for all of those years the FBI has been on constant surveillance. They're convinced that Lou is a Mexican mafioso, a member of la cosa nostra messicana. They also think that he orchestrates the affairs of an entire country's criminal activities from a small room in Mt. Pulaski Elderly Center in Jasper, Indiana.
Needless to say, Lou lost faith in his country years ago.
1.
with margie near sleep in his arms, lou began to talk softly to the darkness.
"younger i listened closely to voices that seem engaged with something better, to people i thought rose just above the care of mundane things, but the years have shaken the voices, and now only a few remain steady while so many seem defeated, seem laced with fear. and daily, i chart my time and say, yes, she’s a good person, but then again, so what? good people stand outside the gate trembling and trying to get somewhere. the great make a choice--perhaps the right one, perhaps not. choice, change--that is what we are faced with every moment."
2.
It began as a relatively harmless activity. Lou would pick a person and follow him or her for a few hours, stopping for coffee when he or she went into a building, always picking up and following as soon as the door came open again.
One mid-morning, he spotted a middle-aged white woman with frizzy brown hair, a white shirt with no bra, and dark pants and decided she was the one for the day. She was walking down the sidewalk, talking on the phone, so it was easy for him to look at her closely and make up a story for her life.
She was probably an architect, a head at some firm. She was dressed casually now, but he could easily imagine her putting on something more sexy to win over a client or two—nothing physical, just something to tempt. At this moment, she was probably on the way to meet a city inspector or an engineer.
He watched her step off the curve, but he did not say anything as she walked in front of a car speeding through a yellow light.
3.
Lou boarded the subway car at Sheefield at 10:15 on the night before his thirty-third birthday. The platform was mostly empty. A few young people waited for the train for what he could only assume was an exciting night out on the town. His own nights had not been like that for years. In fact, since he started his present job as a database manager for Elliott & Nott, he had cut himself off from most of the people he knew. Standing on the subway platform made him think about how he needed to change, to get back into communal life.
When the train came, he boarded and sat down. The train pulled away, and he watched the lights of the different houses pass. In each couples or families gathered. He could see them in flash-bys sitting at tables or watching tv. The only other person in the train car was a blind woman wearing a headscarf with African colors. She sat a few rows away from him. She was talking to herself—the more she talked, the louder her voice became.
“Bound for stars broken open, for colors. A dog standing on a fence. Three red angels burning open. Have to go into the desert where nothing grows.”
She shook her head as she spoke. At times, she looked in his direction, while at times she stared at the advertisements above her head. She repeated mostly the same thing over and over.
When they reached Fullerton, she got up to leave, but when she reached the open door, she stopped and said without turning, “Stars broken open”
She then stepped off the train, the door closed, and the train lurched southward.
Living in Chicago, one gets used to strangers’ personal oddities, to people talking to themselves, throwing cards in your face, playing odd personas, but something was different about this woman. She weirded him out. Like bangs deep at night, she made him paranoid.
He didn’t get the chance to ponder her for long, for just before the Chicago station, a voice came through the mostly empty cars, “Due to a malfunction in the line, our train can go neither forward nor backwards. Since we are in-between stations, there is no easy way off the elevated track. The Fire Department has been called to come empty the train. Please wait patiently.”
4.
“The entire East Coast! Holy crap! How could you let that happen?”
“Look, Hctinktink, I am not used to the settings,” Lou replied.
“We’re supposed to be making first contact here, not killing millions of these humanoids. How are we going to talk to these beings peacefully now that you have just killed more humanoids than ever in their history? I might not be the smartest Lufktanksaniti, but I do know that these beings will be mad at us.”
“Why do we want to talk to these creatures anyway? They are violent. They have almost destroyed everything of real value on their planet already.”
“We want them to come to work for us because they can handle the atmosphere in our gallium mines on Uterion98. They are the only known beings in this sector of the universe who can.”
“Let’s broadcast a message in their languages telling them how sorry we are that we killed so many beings.”
Just as Hctinktink began to broadcast, he noticed that the Earthlings had fired their most powerful weapons at his ship. He laughed and sent probes to destroy the nuclear weapons.
“Fuck it,” he said. “We can keep using robots in the mines. If anyone asks at headquarters, we’ll tell them that we accidentally blew up the planet.”
5.
the lufktanksaniti high council began to wail when he returned.
"why did you destroy the humans? what was wrong with their planet? it was our best mining option."
lou smirked and said, "look, they were hostile. they attacked us without warning, and we felt that it was our duty to destroy them. after all, in another century or two, they would have developed the technology to come after us whether or not we were trying to using their planet for mining? they are like cockroaches--they survive in any part of the known universe and come in when you least want them."
"hctinktink, is he telling the truth?"
"yes. i agree with everything lou says."
6.
hiroshige was waiting for lou. when he arrived, hiroshige spit in his face and said, "i create beauty, while you collect only a field of fragments."
7.
at 11:00 p.m. Lou entered the bar and found a seat on a soft bar stool next to the counter. the place was a too trendy for his taste, but it was the only place he saw in his short walk around the block. he ordered a beer and turned to the woman sitting next to him, a woman at least ten years younger than him. she smiled and asked him where he was from. he knew she was taking pity on him for being all alone, but she was cute, so he began to tell her about himself. she didn’t seem impressed, and in a few minutes made up a good excuse to free herself. after he finished his beer, he left.
8.
as lou licked the envelope, he chuckled. the envelope had the return address of marge, his last fling. it was filled with Burt's Talcum Powder and addressed to senator bushammie of colorado.
9.
she slapped him just after he asked her for the directions to the men's room. he couldn't understand it. what was the problem?
without responding, lou walked away. he had to pee, but he did not want to be beaten.
10.
lou walked up to the chinese woman during the PutaRight Singles Night. he was supposed to spend five minutes getting to know her before moving on to the next woman. from the look in her eyes, he knew that he had no chance already and should just try to be nice to get through the five minutes.
the first thing she said was, “wow, buddy, hard life?”
that was enough for him to know he was not getting her phone number.
11.
a numbing sensation came over lou as he realized that he’d forgotten to adjust thruster number 14 and that now some poor suck of a space tourist was probably falling towards the earth with no hope of life and that he’d probably be fired, though quietly, because the incident was clearly his fault and they’d probably have him on some security camera walking by the thruster without even looking.
12.
Marlina sat next to him, and immediately he began fantasizing about her. She asked him about the information that was being passed out at the doorway, and he handed her his copy with a mumbled reply. She read through it quickly and gave it back without even saying thank you.
All through the policy speech, he watched her hands shift and the gold bracelets she was wearing slide back and forth down her arm. Lou imagined himself licking her arm, working his way up to her shoulder.
She turned and whispered to him, “Do you mind not staring at me?”
13.
Lou is officially retired. He has been for 20 years, but for all of those years the FBI has been on constant surveillance. They're convinced that Lou is a Mexican mafioso, a member of la cosa nostra messicana. They also think that he orchestrates the affairs of an entire country's criminal activities from a small room in Mt. Pulaski Elderly Center in Jasper, Indiana.
Needless to say, Lou lost faith in his country years ago.
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