Boxing Day For Better People
Boxing Day For Better People
Picture Yourself in a Living Room...
December 26, 2020
Smoke in the Aftermath
After far too much eggnog, cookies, cigarettes and a half-dozen Gin and Squirts, all Carvelli wants to do, all she can do, is rest her head on the dining room table. She takes sips of sleep then returns to consciousness and lifts her head up and looks at the Christmas tree in the living room.
Carvelli does this again and again, dipping in and out of sleep, the lights from the tree blurring in her tired, drunken eyes. This tall, perfect, bright tree that she and Epstein put so much care into decorating.
She squints at the tree and concentrates on one shiny blue ornament, the one Epstein bought for her the Christmas before last. It reflects the lights, the moon, the sun, tomorrow, and the dead and the dying. She gazes at the huge, blue ornament and can see the shadows forming behind her. The shadows grow features, eyes, mouths.
The shadows of everyone and all. Carvelli won’t look behind her. She doesn’t have to. She knows they are there. Behind her and in front of her, around her and in her.
She reaches for a Tareyton and lights it and blows a few smoke rings. They carry the shadows toward the blue ornament, like a halo from a dark corner of heaven. --TK
Saturday, December 26, 2020