Author: maggeh

Apologies

From Vendela Vida’s interview with Susan Straigt in The Believer:

BELIEVER: You told me earlier that that your middle daughter, Delphine, told you about a boy in her class who touched a girl, uh, where she didn’t want to be touched. How’d you respond?

SUSAN STRAIGHT: I asked her what she was going to do if that happened to her, and she asked, with this trace of malicious glee, Can I hit him? I said, No, cause then you’ll get in trouble for fighting. And I showed her how to throw that mean elbow that catches them in the jaw and the ear. I gave her the line to say after: Oh, you startled me, and I’m sorry you’re bleeding now.

Away

Our landlady lives below us; she’s rarely home. When someone calls her answering machine and leaves a message, it makes this sound:

Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep

Forethought

I grab this week’s New Yorker and settle in for a long soak in the tub. When I’m finished with the profile on Noam Chomsky, I set my magazine down and begin to wash my face. After the first splash of water, I realize that I’m still wearing my glasses.

The Things That Happened

In a coffee shop on the park, this man is putting together a model airplane. It is an A38-800 Airbus.

The counter guy is not pleased. This man comes around too often and perhaps stays too long; the airplane takes up too much room at a communal table. The counter guy approaches. Oh great, he says. You’re here to stink up the place with airplane glue.

Oh no! the hobbyist says, grinning. He is a man who doesn’t often get attention from strangers. I’m just cutting it out. See? The counter guy nods and makes a nasal sound.

In the corner a professional ballerina is being photographed with her students. In the bathroom, the girl in the next stall answers her cell phone while she’s peeing. She makes plans to meet up for drinks with her pants around her ankles. She is wearing blue Puma tennis shoes, and I wonder if her friend can hear the rattle of the toilet paper dispenser as they decide between Doc’s and Blondies. She hangs up and leaves without washing her hands.

Commonality

This morning we’re watching war TV. We turn it off to go about our lives. Upstairs, our neighbors are watching war TV. Downstairs the landlady is watching war TV. For the first time, the thin walls are a comfort.