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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 125
I'm on 4, waiting for the elevator. And I can hear her swearing and cussing up a storm, she's pissed off, somebody's catching hell and the elevator's rising and she's getting louder and louder, then the door opens and she's alone...
She sees me, looks down, ashamed, scuttles past...
***
I'm pretty much out of groceries, there's nothing in the fridge I can find to eat. And it's a few days to payday. I grab a rock and head over to the neighbours, rattling it in the pot, I'm going to make Stone Soup and I'm hoping maybe she has some things I can add to it, only she isn't home and the broth, well, it's pretty much water and I'm pretty sure this is not how the story's supposed to go...
***
She comes over to raid the fridge, lets herself in, ignores me in the chair while she helps herself to blueberries and ice cream, grabs a Pellegrino, goes back to the fridge for more berries and ice cream, she can't help herself...
***
Making dinner, pasta, I've been paid and the stone's gone back into the stone pile. Run into neighbour, dinner's a Ground Elk bolognese, invite her over. After dinner she sits, she's obliged, she feels she needs to keep me company, manners and all can't eat and run only she doesn’t; she sits and gambles on her phone, then breaks to rifle the bookshelf, grabs a stack to “borrow”; she begins reading Pablo Neruda’s “100 Love Sonnets”; her face is a mirror to her internal emotions, she's smiling, lips pursing, tight, then the edges lift, then she's sad, disturbed, she's furrowing her brow; she’s filled with all manner of twitches and tics.
I scroll my phone a bit, then excuse myself to go for a cigarette and she gets the hint, checks herself out…
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 110
Whom I came across in a book recently read: "Myth and Reality" -
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlegon_of_Tralles
And again: https://artandpopularculture.com/Phlegon_of_Tralles
And the Text of His Book of Marvels: ehttps://topostext.org/work/540
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 120
I run into ****, the Mother-in-laws brother (from the old restaurant) on the street. He's been off the heroin now for years, gets his methadone prescription from the pharmacy. Briefly stop to chat and catch up but he's in no condition, he allows me to take a picture:
Apparently he's found a new hobby. It's none of my business, but I'm not thinking it's any better than the old hobby...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 106
A long 5 minute video apology from the girl that went missing from Shambala. She was found a week or so later, living feral in the woods near Nelway (the border), a classic example of somebody who took too much and never got home...
The video, not obligatory but welcome I'm sure, it took some courage even though clearly she - while "home" and safe - has not yet recovered her peace of mind.
It reminds me of the less fortunate guy that went missing from Shambala a few years ago, last spotted running through yards in Salmo, somewhere now picked clean in the woods.
A reminder to not lose your crew until you get to the relative safety of your home, although where home is will vary with your state of mind.
At the old restaurant, the "Cock 'n' Suck" we'd get these people for weeks after Shambala, parked in a decrepit broken down car in our lot or on the Ferry Landing, just working things out, coming in for food they couldn't pay for, trying to get something done if only they could sustain the thought of what...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 124
"Not my monkey..."
This is my feel-good story of the decade (well, no, maybe week but still) - Diesel the Donkey escapes from his owners. Maybe not "escapes" but somehow gets lost. And is spotted a few years later living with a bunch of Elk. And, as noted, appears to be their leader....
"Heart of Darkness" or "Apocalypse Now" anyone?