Read and view the work of artists from Previous Issues.
Mauna walked around the park thrice before going back home. She stood in her balcony and watched families and bachelors lingering in theirs, scarcely meeting each other’s eyes. Dark and dry, the evening hung itself out like a roll of film, inverting everything into deep blue negatives.
Elder Steve was our neighbor – E.S. as we called him – and across the narrow street from our porch, he resided. We were 3 bro-migos in our mid-twenties, and E.S. was maybe 35 to 40 years our senior. A relic in the area like a rust covered beach cruiser, locked up and forgotten.
The sun, unrelenting now, hammers my head. Blooming white and lilac azalea flowers spill from ceramic pots that line the famous Spanish Steps. Rows of people, most sitting, their faces to the sun. The winter coat weighs on my shoulders, high heeled boots bite my toes. Greasy sweat between my breasts.
The next morning, he woke up at his usual, pre-dawn time. He cooked an egg and smeared butter on wheat toast. After washing the dishes and scrubbing clean the pan, he left his apartment, and started off down the street, on his way for his morning coffee, having forgotten all about the ill feelings of the previous day…
The book was an entertaining read, though it left Jordy thinking of Grayson basically as a player with a God complex, suckering people into doing his work for him and catering to his whims. Through the window, now, Grayson looks like a diminished replica. There’s a band of sweat collecting along his hairline and his leg has been shaking nonstop since the interview got underway.
