| EAST JORDAN MARKET'S | |
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PORTAL FOR
NERVOUSNESS
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PURSUANT TO THE AMERICAN DREAM
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by Mark Neigh
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It is a very cold day in a big town near the beach on the west coast of the United States of America. A small boy is playing in his front yard. The young boy does not play at the beach very often because he was not allowed to go to the beach without his mother, and his mother is always either unconscious on the living room couch or staying at another house. It seems especially cold in front of that small house with the chipped sky blue colored paint and broken screen door. Just the sight of the house with its gravel front yard and weather worn garden gnome and broken screen door beating against the mailbox in the wind makes one colder. It not usually this cold near the beach on the west coast of the United States of America, but it is today. The little boy's mother is laying on the orange and yellow couch in the living room She lays with a light mint green blanket wrapped around her and there is a red mop bucket on the floor. The television flashes red and blue and white and yellow and green light on her face as she shivers there on the couch. The sound of the beating screen door drowns out the noise of the television. The man in the black suit with the black shoes and the black tie slowly steps out of his black, sleek, and shiny, and expensive car. The cold wind blows the tails of his black trench coat as he shuts his door. Two men with warm jackets that are bright, and green, and blue, and have logos of basketball teams on them step out of their red short and dirty car as well. It is a very cold day but none of them are cold. "Here is the money" says one of the men with a warm blue jacket with a logo of a basketball team. "Here is the stuff" says the man in the black trench coat. The men exchange bags and then all three men return to their cars, the man in the black trench coat to his black, and sleek, and shiny, and expensive car; and the two men in the jackets with the logos of basketball teams to their red short and dirty car. The black sleek, and shiny expensive car drives quietly and quickly away, down to the end of the alley, and on the road along the beach of the big town on the west coast of the United States of America. The man in the green jacket opens up the bag containing "the stuff". Suddenly flames engulf the alley and parts of the red short and dirty car land in a twisted and charred and burning masses on that road that goes along the beach. The small boy looks up from where he is playing in the gravel in the front yard of his small house with the chipped sky blue colored paint. A man in a black trench coat walks by and up unto the porch and through the broken screen door. The small boy runs to broken screen door and looks in as the man in the trench coat pulls the light mint green blanket down from the face of his mother. Her cold, and empty, and pale eyes looks up into the face of the man in the black trench coat. "Here is the money" he says. "Thank you" she says. He leans down to embrace her and as he does the red mop bucket spills onto the floor. The small boy smiles as the man in the black trench coat walks out the door and gets into his black, and sleek, and shiny, and expensive car and then drives away. It will be along time before he has to play in the gravel in the front yard. |
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RECENT THINGS OF INTEREST
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| SEVEN FACTS ABOUT ME by Matt Shaw |
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| OF A DIFFERENT SORT by Tyce Jensen |
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Everything here is © 2000 East Jordan Market's Literary Extravaganza