FUN by Susan Tepper
“I’m starving,” I tell him. “Let’s look for a hot dog
truck.”
But I don’t see any food trucks nearby. It’s a damp shivery
day and I’m afraid of the men with the army boots and hoods that stomp around
flattening the wet grass into a mud slide. The women, too. Loud and screechy and like my
mom’s age. If my mom knew she’d skin me alive. About other things, too.
“I love when they grill the hot dogs really well
done,” I say.
“You’ll have to wait.”
He tugs on the brim of his hat pulling it down tighter till I almost
can’t see his eyes. Blue. Sometimes
grey. Sometimes ice. It all depends.
“We had no breakfast,” I say. “I thought for sure
there’d be food when we got here.
Otherwise I would’ve brought some Granola Bars.” I slip my arm through his trying to keep
steady as the crowd lunges this way and that.
“Don’t let go of me,” I say.
“Things are starting to heat up. I don’t want to miss out on the action.”
He’s nineteen. Three years older than me. When ‘the bug’ hit he left college. He calls
it ‘the bug’ though I know better. I read the headlines on the newspapers racked
near the express check-out when there’s a lull at work.
I squeeze my arm tighter against him. I knew this was
a mistake. I always know when things have gone too far then it’s too late to
turn back. I also know I can’t say this out loud. “Are you having fun?” I say.
Susan Tepper is a twenty year writer and the author of nine published books of fiction and poetry. Her most recent are a poetry chap CONFESS (Cervena Barva Press, 2020) and a funky road novel WHAT DRIVES MEN (Wilderness House Press, 2019). Currently, she’s in pre-production of an Off-Broadway Play she wrote and titled ‘The Crooked Heart’ based on artist Jackson Pollock in his later years. www.susantepper.com
No comments:
Post a Comment