If it was anything it was an arachnid dream wickedly angular
cutting
space into shards and paines with varied thicknesses of line
lying everywhere it could convincingly
disorienting
squinting
myopic
Can I
help you
he didnt think so
but he also didnt want to be
abrupt and have her fling herself from her web onto his face
she appeared pliant very patient
spiderly patient
but then standing there or working she was still drawing pay he was her customer
she
could effectively fall back on The
customers always right if her Manager
tried to put the screws to her later
he was the one holding things up
now
forcing the line behind him to grow long
and longer and longer
however a long line behind him didnt agitate him make him anxious or encourage him to cut short his transaction
the people behind
him could have been in front of him if they arrived before he did
but they didnt
and
as he bided his time in line they could
wait theirs
he didnt
create the line
Corporate did
People can wait their turn no
matter long it takes
he was one away from the front of
the line
and had stood listening to the
exchanges of the fat white cashier eminently taking her sweet time sagely assuaging spewing warm homilies rectifying with Christ all the seemingly
troubled and bereft customers who had gone through
the line ahead of him and who seemed oddly comforted by her
attention
Can I
help you glided in behind her disappearing behind her girth and folded up her
sharp batwings
Chubby apparently was overdue for her break and she had been sent
in to relieve her
Help stole away the pent-up relief he was sorely anticipating
sharing with the windbag
disenfranchising
him in the nano-moment Youll-excuse-me without
the benefit of it being tendered as a question
but rather a hasty departure a door unable
to crack her soundly on her massive ass as she left
he reeled in the suddenness of
its denial
yet he couldnt -- as
badly as he wanted to -- bring himself to embattle or blame Help
he had to suffer the black oily
bile at the back of his throat
suffer
the now-absence of the Day-Glo White Marshmallow of Gaaaad-inspiration
Oh the piece of mind he wanted to
share
now
to fester and spoil
Help couldnt take that on the chin
she
hadnt fomented it
Funny how things are erected and
enlarged in ones mind as theyre forced to endure a doggerel line
a Modern Times Rite of
Passage(hed rather kill a lion in the bush or snatch an eagles feather from its
eyrie)
Rites of Passage had long ago expired and for their lack he had to assemble some
kind of Herculean or Gargantuan task to dissuade himself from smearing Help with Chubbys ample share of sourcream frosted hotblooded ooze
and
ire(a double helping goes unsaid)
he had a tickling an inkling of one
perhaps as mythic and worthwhile
every day on big-screen monitors at the gym four screen
droning on and on three of the
screens dedicated to FOX(adherents taxed him calling it FOX News the best he could muster was FOX or tripe(to retain the scarcest modicum of civility) and he was terribly sorry he denigrated or desecrated tripe)
the remaining monitor was
programmed to any Sports that happened to be airing at the moment billiards
auto racing Texas Hold’em poker
every time he sought to have one
of the three concurrent FOX programs changed he was denied the Desk informing that the community the members of the Health Club strongly preferred
FOX News(he had to suffer the black oily bile at the back of his throat)
and as the fantasy metastasized
as he stood in line he found himself
looking down the line for Dorothy of Oz
then
looking down at everyones feet because she was older now and perhaps he was
unable recognise her face
and perhaps she
was wearing the ruby red slippers
hed chase her out of her shoes
on FOX its resident panel of pure
whitey people offered their suppositions if they were black how they would feel
about Rachel Dolezal assuming her transracial transformation and what it meant
to the black community
. . . if they were black
. . . and having chased Dorothy
out of her ruby red slippers hed borrow them for the moment
and ride again a Kansas tornado to drop a house on the blowhards
heads
squash
FOXs panel of eidgets(a bungalow ought to be plenty)
Can I
help you
she stood across the counter from him
squinting at him with dull eyes
it
appeared she forgot her glasses somewhere but come hell or high water despite her
infirmity and minimized
she was going to help her level-best
she had sharp cheekbones a long pointed chin her head topped with short matte brown hair like fur
pointy ears higher on her head than he was accustomed seeing
-- Help he said
I dont think so
the fantasy inside his skull was
evaporating and congealing at its convex ceiling like chilled condensation
or gathering tears
Chubby was breaked
even why he was in line in the
first place had removed itself
there was something in his hands he
was returning seeking reimbursement but he couldnt see it
he was caught up in webs
spun without
and within
and if he acted now without
clarity he couldnt be sure he provided
himself justice or her
Doing a line
had been seriously altered from what he knew it to be
had been seriously altered from what he knew it to be
1623, Twosday,
16 6. 15
1242, Thursday,
18 6. 15
