The young waitress had a high-pitched, squeaky, voice. The effort it cost her to speak was visible, her neck muscles were strained, the tendons pushed outwards. I watched her as she described in full what ingredients went into the soup. She did so without hesitation. Someone at the other table asked, with a smile in […]
moreAs I handed my jacket to the lady at the coat-check, I suddenly felt sure I was naked. A chill passed over my hips. Had I forgotten to get dressed? I checked and noticed my skirt. I checked again, just in case. By then, other people were looking at my skirt too. And so I […]
moreI threw up this morning. I never throw up. I had gagged on the false image of love that had filled me with greed and desire and still circled in my system seeking escape. Not that throwing up came as a relief. It hurt. Last night I watched a pianist play. I closed my eyes […]
moreI was negotiating a contract today, and something unusual happened. Perhaps the opposing lawyer disliked listening to a contrary view, or perhaps he was simply bored. Or underpaid. Or spoiled. In any event, he suddenly threw a tantrum. During his outburst, he found it necessary to refer to me in words that would compare to […]
moreFor a second I was tempted. It was only a split second. He had handed me his iPhone and it rested on my lap. I could read every message, all of it, if I wanted to. The night before, I had gone out for drinks with a man. He had come out of his mother’s […]
moreThe challenge in writing screenplay is this: once you change something in a scene, you’ll find yourself changing things in many, many other scenes down the line too. In retrospect this actually means you did something right, because the one scene (any scene) is supposed to influence the next. That’s the whole purpose of screenwriting. […]
moreA man says he feels incompetent. He feels “less”, he says. “Less than others obviously,” and his mind runs ahead of him, yet he backtracks to quickly add the words he was already skipping, “but that’s only the outside world and so it doesn’t matter.” and what he really wants to say is: “less than […]
moreMy playlist coughs up an old song to me. It took me straight back to that moment I stood in front of him, studying his reaction. I hadn’t known what to say to him as he walked in. We had argued so many times, exchanged so many words that we no longer knew which were […]
moreThe man who’s dog diedis in the take-out pizza place. Wherever I see him, he’s always there first. He is waiting. I mention that I saw all the kitchen staff inside the restaurant. They are eating. “Oh are they?” he says, “I see. I was wondering about that. I’ve been here for some ten minutes […]
moreShe sits across from her mother, making eye-contact sometimes, but not purposefully. When she does, it is by chance. She means nothing by it. While in turn, her mother searches her eyes. Tries to hold them sometimes. She knows this. She wonders why she won’t grant her mother the illusion of intimacy. She tries once, […]
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