Excerpt
from "You are Blessed"
“You are blessed.”
That’s what Shelly told John Baxter
after she touched his face and kissed him fat on the mouth.
John went for an interview that morning. He
got the job – on the spot.
“Looks like I’ll have to be moving
out, buddy,” John said to his roommate, Blake, a shapeless
broomstick with large shoulder blades and pale orange raggedy-anne-doll
hair, always wearing the same grey T-shirt, seemingly stuck
in it, like a philosopher stuck in a metaphysical dilemma.
Blake watched John and Shelley celebrate from
his bedroom doorway. Blake was a distant spectator, in need
of a shave, tonguing a cold sore on the inside corner of
his bottom lip. He stared blankly at the fortunate couple
as they hugged, as if watching a sitcom where everyone was
beautiful and happy and where everything worked itself out
in the end, a world perfectly arranged, and impossible.
Blake knew that John dreamed of being a C.E.O.
one day, and no one thought he sounded unrealistic. “Like
a young Kennedy.” That’s what they would say.
After a long moment, Blake lied a smile and
shrugged.
“Well, congratulations.”
David Gruber
LaMirada, CA
Grubermailbox@aol.com
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