The Presenters interviewed the excluded boy.
Their stated aim was to understand,
to see what could be improved,
how it could be made better for everyone.
Within 20 minutes, I unplugged the furry little beast from the USB socket and patted its audibly purring back. It was warm. I was impressed, immediately enchanted. These devices are extremely lifelike!
Again he looked at me as if he had just met the village idiot. “If you haven’t written down what your complaint is about, how do you expect them to address it? They haven’t got time to write it down for you.”
For a few days I got caught up in a fantasy about a doggie cathouse. The girl dogs lounged around in provocative garments, while the doggie madam, a blowsy old Irish setter, negotiated with the customers. I began to think I was losing it.
I nod and do a sneaky line off my wrist, Sam glowers at her bag and then grabs the shaker and does a line of her own. It is three nights since we slept together and neither will mention it to the other.
thirsty goldminers
nourishing on
mercury-filled water
sweet tooth fills
with gold amalgam
In the beginning,
all my little poems
were suicide notes.
Five thousand pages,
one long suicide note.
Audrey Rose: Who’s this Sardine you’ve been writing about the last week?
Jackson Andrews: Joe already explained who he was.
Paul Peterson: I remember him mentioning it. The Sardine’s a moron.
Joe T.: Maybe you should unfollow me, Paul.
Generally, we’re all useless bystanders to the events happening around us or that we’re involved with. Anything significant goes on behind our backs. As if we’re programmed to ignore all the bad crap that happens in our lives.
Long-time readers of Unlikely Stories might remember me writing about my daughter, Michaela. (Michaela was assigned male at birth, so you might remember me writing about my son.) On October 24, 2023, Michaela died unexpectedly in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon.
Once inside, I quickly got a feel for my surroundings. It smelled awful. Like something had died and rotted in here. The floor was sticky and there was no way I was going to sit in that chair. I wanted to get his over with.