Harry Nilsson - "Everything is Food (demo)"

Abby and Miguel went to Abby's aunt and uncle's for a barbecue. It was mid-July and hot and dry and the sun-bleached deck was scorching Abby's feet through her socks. She went from one foot to the other. She was getting a bit dizzy from it.

"Miguel. That's Spanish, right?" said Abby's uncle Todd, who was grilling Boston chicken hams and a small foil ball of veggies and potatoes. "I only know a bit of Spanish," he said, his sunglasses reflecting Abby and Miguel back at them, their faces looked cartoonishly stretched. "Dos cerveza, por favor," and he laughed heavily in his belly. Abby was hypnotized by the grilling of the food, the smoke and sizzle, and from hopping back and forth from foot to foot, that she didn't notice Miguel looking at her for a reaction to that.

In the living room, through the open sliding door, CNN was blaring. A straight-backed short-haired Christian man sat next to a hunched plaid-shirt-bowtie liberal "--well they shouldn't have been focusing so much on the flu shots, it wasn't nearly the epidemic they said it was, what they should have been doing was inoculating people for Christianity--" the plaid-shirt-bowtie man hunched his shoulders further, his thick glasses obscuring his eyes looking somewhere out of frame, "--Christianity is a far bigger and more deadly epidemic these days--" suddenly the Christian panelist sitting beside him lunged with a growl and punched the man in the face.

"Ho, shit, Abby!" called out a voice from inside, "come see this!" It was Abby's cousin Mark, who was back living at his parents' house, he often joked 'because of the cable'. Abby sort of fell over Miguel a bit as they went inside, hitting the air conditioning like some kind of forcefield.

"That guy just punched that other guy!" but by the time they were inside, it was just the backs of security guards crowding the frame. But Abby had heard everything from outside, she was drawn to it, and she became overwhelmed. She started crying softly into Miguel's chest, who looked around to see if anyone was noticing this. I didn't do anything! was the first thing he could think of to say.

They left before dinner and took some veggies with them. As they drove home, they passed a little white church on the side of the road. And without speaking, Miguel pulled quickly off into the dirt lot beside. They both got out of the car and Abby went inside. They stayed for hours, until it was dark, and above the thick and piercing sound of the crickets, Miguel could hear moaning coming from inside. He sat quietly, speechless, expressionless, and played with the grass like a little boy.

Parenthetical Girls - "Someone Else's Muse"

[info on the Popeye demos]
[Buy Privilege pt. 1 (limited run of 500)]

[book software by Megazine]