Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Orange Slices

Once…you held onto the door of my car and pleaded to me with cartoon eyes never to leave you. It was summer then, the air smelled of grapes about to turn sour, or vintage, I wasn’t quite sure. It was perfectly cinematic. I became familiar with the distance, friendly with personnel at the Burbank Airport, comfortable with the concept of what I was told that love should feel like. I documented significant and insignificant dates in a little notebook because I can never remember anything of relevance unless it pertained to my own sorry self. Once…I arrived at your house for the first time anxious. The quintessentially Angelino façade of the building, resting on top of that hill with that often too misleading beacon of hope, the Hollywood sign was always disappointing up close. Hipster before instagram hipster friends, an accordion added to any trio rock band gives them street cred, we sip brandy here, only troglodytes drink beer, unless of course it comes from a Pabst can, can it be considered acceptable. Running through the catalog in my head of not-so-dumb-sounding-pseudo-spiritual-bullshit to fit in. I still haven’t read the Autobiography of a Yogi. I hated what I had become, but I loved you. Once…you would fall asleep, shoji screen windows open enough to let the Santa Ana winds have their way with your dreams, soft eclectic sounds from National Public Radio stabilizing, me chain smoking on the thin balcony overlooking what appeared to be Glendale…cities run together forming prefectures in Southern California. The warm air spoke quickly about the past and nothing of the future. We could lie in bed like that all day. The world outside was happening around us and while we still felt so utterly connected to it, to it, to it I was withdrawn. Once…there was no urgency. Sunday strolls down Silverlake Boulevard, farmers market, tofu scramble, fair trade beans, my hand in yours and your hand holding up high my insecurities…and if we could only figure out how we could be connected to the world but still be far from it because we are either all interconnected or we are not. If we could only be more concerned about whether or not there was a band playing at El Cid or if it was Flamenco night, but you must at least try to make it to Flamenco night because the set meal is delicious and didn’t you know that this was the first sound stage for the movies in all of Los Angeles? I stood in line for the bathroom like you were the most beautiful woman in the world. Once…it was a holiday. It was summer again and we were older and the air smelled of sage. And with the kindest of eyes, mimicking the eyes of goddess you told me, I just want to sit in the sun and drink my ice water with orange slices.

11 comments:

  1. I stood in line for the bathroom like you were the most beautiful woman in the world....great line...that last line, amazing...sit in the sun..seriously good stuff...

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  2. I enjoyed all of the evocative details you wrote in this story. I was right there with you inside the story. For me it had the feeling of both a dream and reminiscing as I floated through your words.

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  3. Loved reading this . . . felt myself getting lost within it.

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  4. The warm air spoke quickly about the past and nothing about the future ... yes, for me this sums up the musing on the relationship that is here now and in the future ...?

    I loved reading this piece ... it comes in such good waves, ebbs and flows ...

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  5. Good detail in this. I enjoyed reading this.

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  6. This is so beautiful... I just love the ending.

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  7. Thanks everyone for the positive words...really appreciate it!

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  8. You poured so much emotion into this great write .... :-)

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  9. I really loved this, while it was a love story about people it was also a love story about my home state CA and I read it smiling about all the places I know and love. Great details and great lines-I hated what I had become but I loved you--and the scene with Santa Ana winds...absolutely wonderful. Thank you for the trip home :-)

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  10. Yes, I agree with the above ... the details are wonderful. Didn't know that about " Flamenco ".

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