a paper. He tucks the paper under his arm and carries it back across the parking lot to the office building where he works. He goes in. Rhonda is there, sitting at her desk, staring off into nowhere, with her red hair and freckles.
“You’re in early,” Tom says.
“I was over near here, so I thought I might as well just come on over here and be here. So here I am.” Rhonda often talks like this, especially early in the morning.
Her hair is especially red today , Tom thinks.
“Did you dye your hair?” Tom says.
“No,” Rhonda says.
Tom takes sips of his coffee. He keeps taking sips until all the coffee is gone. He closes one eye and squints the other so he can look into the little hole of the takeout cup.
“I think I have some kind of perceptual problem,” Tom says. “I think there’s something going wrong with me. I keep cutting my fingers, for example.” He holds up his hands to show Rhonda he has two Band-Aids on one hand and one on the other. “I think there’s something really going wrong with me.”
“You should see a doctor,” Rhonda says.
Anyway, that’s it for Tom. Thanks again.
O NE TIME , Wiley Pocock wrote this long, convoluted poem and read it to the class. This was in grade three. It was the assignment. It didn’t have to be a long poem. Some of the kids wrote short ones. One kid, whose name was Chuck, wrote a poem two lines long, with the word “time” at the end of the first line and the word “lime” at the end of the second. At recess, after Chuck read his poem to the class, he went outside and beat up a bunch of kids in the school yard. He went around the school yard for fifteen minutes beating up kids.
~
I used to drive a school bus in the summer, taking kids to a camp in the city. I picked up kids in the High Park area. It was always warm and humid, even early in the morning. I would go down to pick up the kids and I would have the door of the bus open to get air into the bus to cool me down. The area where I picked up the kids was the same area where I one day wanted to live. I would drive down early, park the bus in front of the school where I made the first pickup, and then I would get out of the bus and walk around, looking for someplace where I could buy a coffee. There was a girl, Sarah, and a guy, Brett, who were counselors at the camp and who were in love. Sometimes they came to the bus stop early and sat together against a wall of the school. Sarah was like summer, because she looked warm and swollen and ready for anything.
~
The other day I took Tutti and Sammy to Guelph. I told them Guelph might be a good town to live in. Tutti wants to live in another town. I had heard about some parks in Guelph that were supposed to be fun for kids, so we went to look at these parks to see if Sammy would have fun playing in these parks. While we were there in Guelph walking in one of the parks, Tutti got poison oak. A couple of days later, Sammy got it, too.
~
Say I knocked, though, and Tutti would not open the door. Say she had the baby in her arms and she was saying, “Hush, that’s your daddy out there. Hush now, and don’t make a sound.”
~
Somebody has been ripping out the pages with naked pictures of Madonna on them. This is happening with all the magazines, including the Greek ones, which always have pictures of naked women in them. Just so you understand, what we are talking about here is every single article with naked pictures of Madonna, in every single magazine we have here.
The other thing you ought to know is, someone is randomly deleting people’s reserves for the book where the naked pictures of Madonna are coming from. We are talking about an employee here, someone inside the system, someone who is going into the computer, calling up the reserve list for the Madonna book, and telling the computer to delete people’s reserves. We don’t know who it is, but whoever it is is deleting vast sections of the reserve list. Management has
“You’re in early,” Tom says.
“I was over near here, so I thought I might as well just come on over here and be here. So here I am.” Rhonda often talks like this, especially early in the morning.
Her hair is especially red today , Tom thinks.
“Did you dye your hair?” Tom says.
“No,” Rhonda says.
Tom takes sips of his coffee. He keeps taking sips until all the coffee is gone. He closes one eye and squints the other so he can look into the little hole of the takeout cup.
“I think I have some kind of perceptual problem,” Tom says. “I think there’s something going wrong with me. I keep cutting my fingers, for example.” He holds up his hands to show Rhonda he has two Band-Aids on one hand and one on the other. “I think there’s something really going wrong with me.”
“You should see a doctor,” Rhonda says.
Anyway, that’s it for Tom. Thanks again.
O NE TIME , Wiley Pocock wrote this long, convoluted poem and read it to the class. This was in grade three. It was the assignment. It didn’t have to be a long poem. Some of the kids wrote short ones. One kid, whose name was Chuck, wrote a poem two lines long, with the word “time” at the end of the first line and the word “lime” at the end of the second. At recess, after Chuck read his poem to the class, he went outside and beat up a bunch of kids in the school yard. He went around the school yard for fifteen minutes beating up kids.
~
I used to drive a school bus in the summer, taking kids to a camp in the city. I picked up kids in the High Park area. It was always warm and humid, even early in the morning. I would go down to pick up the kids and I would have the door of the bus open to get air into the bus to cool me down. The area where I picked up the kids was the same area where I one day wanted to live. I would drive down early, park the bus in front of the school where I made the first pickup, and then I would get out of the bus and walk around, looking for someplace where I could buy a coffee. There was a girl, Sarah, and a guy, Brett, who were counselors at the camp and who were in love. Sometimes they came to the bus stop early and sat together against a wall of the school. Sarah was like summer, because she looked warm and swollen and ready for anything.
~
The other day I took Tutti and Sammy to Guelph. I told them Guelph might be a good town to live in. Tutti wants to live in another town. I had heard about some parks in Guelph that were supposed to be fun for kids, so we went to look at these parks to see if Sammy would have fun playing in these parks. While we were there in Guelph walking in one of the parks, Tutti got poison oak. A couple of days later, Sammy got it, too.
~
Say I knocked, though, and Tutti would not open the door. Say she had the baby in her arms and she was saying, “Hush, that’s your daddy out there. Hush now, and don’t make a sound.”
~
Somebody has been ripping out the pages with naked pictures of Madonna on them. This is happening with all the magazines, including the Greek ones, which always have pictures of naked women in them. Just so you understand, what we are talking about here is every single article with naked pictures of Madonna, in every single magazine we have here.
The other thing you ought to know is, someone is randomly deleting people’s reserves for the book where the naked pictures of Madonna are coming from. We are talking about an employee here, someone inside the system, someone who is going into the computer, calling up the reserve list for the Madonna book, and telling the computer to delete people’s reserves. We don’t know who it is, but whoever it is is deleting vast sections of the reserve list. Management has
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