--COME BACK TO THE WINDOW AND LISTEN

…I have a news story, “Witches” up at Lit Bomb UK:

http://www.litbomb.co.uk/#/witches/4576513314

…The new “Vampire Weekend” and “Dawes” cd’s arrived and I love them both.

More books (yikes) arrived as well:

“Tenth of December” George Saunders

“Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned,” Wells Tower

“Seduction,” M.J. Rose

“The Interestings,” Meg Wolitzer

“Saturday,” Ian McEwan

…Yesterday I had to write a piece that was 200 words or less for a writer’s group I belong to.  Anymore, I’m having trouble doing such short things, unless it’s poetry, of course.  But I did write this:

                                            

                                                                             Couples

            At the park, Jess watches a young man push his girlfriend on a swing.  The girlfriend chuckles with each shove, her laughter more gurgles than laughter.  Sometimes he tickles her before liftoff to make her gurgle harder. 

            “Stop!” she says, but he knows No means Yes, so he tickles her more and she gurgles again.

            Next they move to the Merry Go-round.  They’re hardly pros.  The young man has difficultly pushing while maintaining balance.  Each time he tumbles, the girlfriend gurgles and shrieks with delight. 

            “You’re silly!” she says.

            Jess watches the young man belly flop into a pile of maple leaves, flapping his arms and legs as if making a snow angle, the girlfriend snorting and gurgling. 

            “Come on over,” the young man says, patting a flattened patch, “I’ve saved a seat for you.”

            After she does, the young man scans the pile for a particular leaf, one with a long stem, placing it through her hair, telling her she’s beautiful while watching her blush.  Then he kisses her nose.

            At dinner that night, Jess decides not to tell her husband about the couple she saw, the pair with Down Syndrome.  Instead, she eats in silence.  They both do.