• • •
It was difficult for Jillian to sit up and, when she did, she felt like a ghost, like she was sending her avatar to continue her life while she was really still there on the bed. This feeling had happened before. It was fun in a certain way, because of how she felt like she was floating around, which made her feel, even if she didn’t think it specifically, as if there were some kind of random current to life sloshing her toward her fate.
She sat next to Adam on the couch. They didn’t speak. They watched the program about the sentient dolphins.
• • •
Megan and Randy walked home together. Megan started crying and Randy held her hand. They fought again in the morning. Sunday was a generally bad day. Megan smoked a lot and sat outside on the curb and fantasized about fugue states.
• • •
Jillian took the battery out of her phone and hid it somewhere in her house, then sat down and consciously forgot where she put it. Then, since it was Sunday, she observed that it was her day of rest.
5
Things kept happening the way they would. On Monday it was still warm. Megan took a shower and shaved her legs, bikini area, and armpits, put on lotion and deodorant, then put on a decent outfit. She got on the bus and sat in a patch of sun and put a book in her lap, but wasn’t able to read it. She was spaced out. A really loud guy got on the bus.
“Ugh, I lost my cell phone,” he shouted. Megan watched him. The guy looked around and noticed another guy, similarly dressed, look up at him. “Hey, man, can I use your cell phone?” he asked.
The similarly dressed guy said “Sure” kind of quietly and handed his phone to the loud guy.
“Hey, man, this is Jim. Yeah, I’m on the bus right now. Yeah, I’m at North and Halsted. Yeah, so I guess I’m gonna be there in like twenty minutes, okay? Okay. Okay,” said the loud guy. He hung up and gave the phone back. “Thanks, man,” he said. “I’m an event promoter.” The other guy nodded. “And I lost my cell phone, so it’s like, man, I’m drowning over here without my phone, you know?”
“Oh, yeah, I know how that is.”
“Yeah, you know. And it’s not the value of the phone that I’m worried about. I don’t care about the value of the phone, it’s the value of all of those contacts.”
“Oh yeah,” said the other guy.
“I’m on my way up to go get my cell phone right now. The lady who found it called around to get in touch with me. I feel lucky about that.”
“Oh, yeah. You know there’s still good people in the world.”
“That is right. You know, I was working all weekend at those two Temptations shows. You like The Temptations?”
“Oh, yeah, Big Daddy Williams.”
“Oh, yeah! So I was dancing with my girl, taking a break from working, and my phone slipped out of my pocket. And it was, like, the end of it for me. I thought I was going to lose my position. Because I’m my own boss. But I can’t do my work without those contacts.”
The other guy nodded. The loud guy continued.
“But then this lady called my girl up and said she had my phone. And now here you are, lending me your cell phone. And that’s just so great of you, man. I mean, I might have lost everything if you hadn’t lent me your phone, I’m serious.”
“Well, I believe that good deeds are returned. And I believe that we’re all in the right place at the right time to help each other out or to not help each other out, depending on the way we feel moved to act. It’s an invisible impulse, but I think, and I don’t know if this is too much to say, but I think it’s something else that’s telling us how to act.”
“That’s a deep feeling, friend,” said the loud guy.
The two guys continued to talk about the invisible accidents of politeness and cruelty or whatever and, eventually, Megan tuned them out and turned to the window.
What’s next on
your reading list?
Discover your next
great read!
Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author.
Sign up now.
