<$BlogRSDURL$>

Sunday, January 04, 2004

SORRY, RIGHT NUMBER

"It's me again."

"This is getting to be a regular thing," I said.

"Have you thought about what I said?" F asked.

"Yes, I have," I said. "And you are entirely right. I'm going to change
the whole thing. Your name is G now, Young Saint G. And instead of a
strip club in Florida we went to a Bible Camp in Texas and instead of doing
what you did to that college kid, you saved a poor crippled boy who had
fallen into a retaining pond."

"You always were a sarcastic bastard," F said. "That's why you never got
anywhere. Wasting your time making fun of people instead of accomplishing
anything."

"By accomplishing, do you mean getting them to trust you and then taking
advantage of them?" I asked.

"I'm a healer," F said. "Remember that. A healer and a professional. And
I'm well respected in the community."

"Is that the community of people who didn't see your name in that reference
book of questionable doctors and their dubious practices?" I asked.

"The mention," F said, "was a libel and a mistake. There was a retraction."

"I must have missed that," I said.

"I see so far you've taken my advice," F said.

"Excuse me?"

"You haven't written anything else in that one narrative of yours."

"I've been busy," I said. "That's all. Besides, I've been distracted.
I've been getting these fragmentary memories of another night in a
medium-sized decaying industrial type town. There was some sort of an
encounter with some sort of people of the night. I've been trying to get it
all clear in my mind before I write the definitive version."

"That wasn't me," F said. "I was out of the country when that happened."

"You know, the more we talk, the more it comes back to me," I said.

"Gotta go," F said. "But I'll be in touch."

"Sure," I said. "No problem."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Can I ask you a question?” I asked LW.

“What is it?”

“Do you know what a retaining pond is?”

“Yes, I do. It’s something called a retention pond.”

“Do you think they have them in Texas?”

“I haven’t a clue.”

“That’s the problem in a nutshell,” I said. “The minute I
start making things up, the whole story goes to hell. I’m
going to have to stick to the facts, no matter what.”

“You do that,” said LW.

“Oh, one more thing. Would you mind if I called you Lupe,
instead of LW? I think it would be better for both of us
in the long run.”











Comments: Post a Comment

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?