Photobooth at The Shady Lady by Myles Boisen |
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THE FINDING: NO. 4
by Lauren India Henley No one is alone in Arcata, everyone does everything with someone else. If you are alone, you are on your way to meet up with other people. Only bicycles with two or more seats are sold here. It’s not uncommon to see lovemaking in line at the bank, at the Laundromats, on the bridge over the freeway. And so there are many mothers in this town and almost everyone is pregnant. Children are valued like mayors, they run through clothing stores and markets and they don't have to brush their hair, ever. There are men in the forest. One of them has a broken flute or his hands are old, but either way his music sounds like glass birds flying into one another, the confusion, the work the breath must do. Here, dogs are made out of old furniture and unwashed laundry, they pose as chairs, as tables and loveseats— people only like the dogs when they are something useful. Everything you've heard about this town is true. But still I want to know, what have you heard? RESEARCH ON EARLY PARENTAL LOSS by Kelly Nelson Expert #1: You will avoid involvements. You will be less happy than others but not know it. You will have an unconscious fear of positive moods. You will secretly sabotage yourself. And your defense mechanism— you'll wash and wax it, change its oil, fill its tires, install a stereo and four subwoofers. Expert #2: Dry mouth or wet mouth but never just right mouth, your glands and secretions forever changed. Expert #3: Be a girl. Be a girl who loses her father. Be a girl who loses her father, ignores the sure fear of intimacy and marries. Be that girl, add wine, and you’ll be primed to shred his throat. Expert #4: That intact home you didn't grow up in? Oh, that'll dog you forever. Have this stress, have that stress, and you'll be much sicker than folks whose homes didn’t shatter. # I lost my dad. I was thirteen. My mom lost her dad. She was thirteen. Her mother lost her mother when she was three, then lost her dad at thirteen. Flash us a card that says loving—our muscles tense. Flash a card marked excited—we’ll frown. |
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