"I feel... stuck."
"How so buddy? Personally? In your career? What?"
"All of them. All of the above. I feel like there's a way I could be living, should be living, and the way I'm living now, isn't it."
"I hear ya."
"I feel inert."
"What's that mean?"
"Like, at a stand still."
"Then say that. 'I feel like I'm at a stand still.'"
Slick dude comes into the Subway restaurant and makes a big scene of walking up to the queue and seeing what's on the menu and then deciding not to order. He takes a seat with his friend (who was already inside the store and has already ordered) and they sit at a table and begin chatting up the girls sitting opposite them.
"What's going on, girl? You look bummed."
She, slumped in her booth with her two friends, rouses from her funk and responds: "Naw. Just tired."
"Why, girl? What's the matter?"
"Been walkin' all day. Sight-seein'."
"Oh naw? Where you from?"
"Indy-Anna."
"Cool, cool. From the United States?"
"Yeah."
"Cool, cool."
His friend speaks: "So what brings you here?"
"Just waitin' for some friends."
I don't think that's how he meant to inquire but they roll with the response the only way they know how.
"Cool, cool."
At that moment her friends arrive; 3 dudes in skinny jeans and ball caps. The slick dude immediately gets his back up. There are high fives and fist-pounds all around, and then the 3 dudes take the girls out into the street. Our hero fathoms one last stab at conversation: "So... Where you from?"
She already answered that. "Indy-Anna."
"Cool, cool."
The guys and the girls disappear into the street. Our hero adds, as they part: "United States! Barrack O-BAMA!"
They all laugh. Half-hearted. "Yeah"s and even a "Yeah, we're his cousins." Which the slick guy's friend repeats in appreciation.
They go, and are gone. Minutes later they return and ask if our hero can score them weed. True Story.
Ruth Dhorm
It all started for Ruth Dhorm when her husband stormed a courtroom and took the Judge and three jurors hostage in an ill-fated attempt to negotiate the freedom of their two sons, on trial for armed robbery. It didn't end well. He and the Judge were fatally wounded in the ensuing shootout.
Investigators turned their sights on Ruth when they learned that she purchased the weapons used in the attack. She went on the run. She was tracked down two hours later after she accidentally trapped herself in an attic while trying to elude authorities.
Ruth was sent to a federal prison in Leavenworth, KS. In prison, she was accused of hatching a scheme to blow up the prison, land a helicopter in the confusion and spring herself. She made the critical blunder of buying phoney explosives from an FBI informant. Later, she cut through a heavy screen in a prison window and escaped in her pyjamas.
She started a new life for herself on the run. She worked tirelessly for several local AIDS charities. She lost a tight battle for a seat on the Fairfax County School Board. She and her lover, a part-time skydiving instructor and porn star, videotaped themselves having sex in a plane before jumping out in tandem and continuing the act midair. He was fired.
They kidnapped a construction heiress and demanded a $500,000 random. While they held their hostage, their house was raided for cockfighting. The heiress was released, seven children were taken into protective custody, and 100 roosters were seized. Ruth, shot up with performance-enhancing drugs used to bolster the fighting potential of the birds, fought her way out.
Ruth remained on the loose for 23 years before finally surrendering. In the end, she was deported to her native Honduras.
Investigators turned their sights on Ruth when they learned that she purchased the weapons used in the attack. She went on the run. She was tracked down two hours later after she accidentally trapped herself in an attic while trying to elude authorities.
Ruth was sent to a federal prison in Leavenworth, KS. In prison, she was accused of hatching a scheme to blow up the prison, land a helicopter in the confusion and spring herself. She made the critical blunder of buying phoney explosives from an FBI informant. Later, she cut through a heavy screen in a prison window and escaped in her pyjamas.
She started a new life for herself on the run. She worked tirelessly for several local AIDS charities. She lost a tight battle for a seat on the Fairfax County School Board. She and her lover, a part-time skydiving instructor and porn star, videotaped themselves having sex in a plane before jumping out in tandem and continuing the act midair. He was fired.
They kidnapped a construction heiress and demanded a $500,000 random. While they held their hostage, their house was raided for cockfighting. The heiress was released, seven children were taken into protective custody, and 100 roosters were seized. Ruth, shot up with performance-enhancing drugs used to bolster the fighting potential of the birds, fought her way out.
Ruth remained on the loose for 23 years before finally surrendering. In the end, she was deported to her native Honduras.
Tusk
I sit there and read my book. The night is hot. It's been hot the past few nights. There's a nice breeze coming in through the window. I sit on the couch. I hear the sound of some kids walking down the sidewalk outside my building. They're a group of kids clapping in unison and failing loudly. At the center of them a girl who thinks she is Christina Aguilera performs Lean On Me. Some dude shouts something that I can't make out as they march past the house, clapping awkwardly. I sit there and listen to them passing.
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