Truth, Lies, Dreams
Trying to get the tube home.
A young Chinese woman in a brown plaid jacket and skirt holds a black briefcase and stands with her back to me on the platform. She watches a District Line train passing through, but it is too late for me and has left by the time I get there.
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I am in an open top convertible, silver, driving along a deserted street on the way to Mum and Mao Senior’s house. Or is it to my own?
There is nothing on the street. No people, no other cars, everything is grey with a thin film of dust, the skyscrapers in the distance, the strip malls, even the road itself. Until I see the bright lit yellow sign of a liquor store coming up on the right.
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We were on vacation, in a cafeteria, waiting to get on board a plane to one of the islands. It was pouring down outside. A group sat at a long plastic table, but there wasn’t room for us, so Siobhan dragged a second table and aligned it next to theirs. Still it was too small to fit all of us, so I added another table, aligning it next to Siobhan’s.
A woman was sitting at the long table. She was thin, a blue dress, with thin wispy blonde hair, neatly crossed her legs.
Continue reading “Escaping from a Tsunami”
I am walking around with Ricky G who is considering buying a place in the area.
“Houses are cheaper across the state line by Silver Brook West,” I tell him. “If you are right across the border you can simply walk back to the shops and restaurants without having to get into your car.”
We are parked on the side with the shops but walk over the state line onto a grassy area used for cars, a makeshift parking lot used precisely for access from the other direction. “See how easy it is?”
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I step out of the hotel and ask to hitch a ride in the back of a white van with a group of doctors. They also have to go to a conference, all of them dressed in white coats and talking amongst themselves about the day’s events. I check my papers, they’re in the case with me and we are headed downtown, the day bright with the early morning sun like you only find in Washington.
Then the van pitches suddenly to the right, down a steep spiral cobblestone street. We flit past old buildings covered with posters and tall enough to block out the sky.
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