Unedited old story which I remember being happy with at the time but now realise that I am not a writer.
Dim light in the middle of a Summer day.
The girl who I was sharing a large beach towel with smiled as she talked which lead me to believe that I should know her. She was relaxed which made sense because we were on an island, and we had a getaway craft.
People on islands are always relaxed, unless they dont have a getaway craft. But we had one of those.
Our craft came in the form of a small dingy with a disproportioned motor at the stern which meant that when in motion the drivers vision was impaired by the rearing of the bow.
I didn’t recognise the beach towel girl. But she kept talking and I kept half listening. She was saying how much she liked dreams because anything was possible in dreams. Crock of shit if you ask me. My dreams consisted usually of boring coversations or soccer team flash backs. I used to get nightmares, but thats over so i guess that giddy parents with ice cream containers full of quatered oranges and nervous teenage referees is preferable…to nightmares…
There are two people making out. Which doesn’t suprise me. After all, being on an island…with an getaway craft. One of them was Mateo. I recognised him, we met at a Sonic Youth concert which i went to by myself. Mateo was older than me and he looked it i guess, But I felt better than him because I wasn’t wearing a shirt. His consenting partner in this Island makeout festival was thin. Her name badge said Dorothy but I knew her name was actually Pavlova. We did meet but she was as drunk as a skunk, trying to get her spew out from beneath the fridge with a shoe lace wrapped around two gaffa taped chopsticks. She was bright, Pavlova. But she wouldn’t recognise me. I looked quite different with my shirt off.
There was one other person. The bottom of her jeans were rolled up but they were still soaked. Which did make sence.
She was in the process of rolling her saltwater cuffs down. I didn’t recognise her and she definately didn’t recognise me.
The conversation with the girl on the towel was dying off. I had said a few things to maintain the illusion of attentiveness. She was begining to notice my attitude. She rearanged her coaster on the coffee table and lit a cigarette, adding a finishing touch to our rapidly dissolving conversation. We stopped talking, the two on the couch stopped kissing and the other girl closed her eyes and leant back into her shoulderblades.
It was funny because the girl who had bored me so much in conversation was now fascinating me by the smoke which began to wrap over her upper lip like a space avalanche. I still didn’t fully recognise her but I knew she had something to do with learning. Maybe a teacher…maybe.
There was a squeak against the floor and then some chuckling. Followed by a few more squeaks and a few more giggles.Pavlova tried to keep the conversation between herself and Mateo alive but they eventually pingged into eachother and began a kissing warmly.
I felt Lazy. I had done nothing to engage the intrest of anyone in the room. And slowly but surely killed off anyone elses chance of finding common ground of which to make a conversation. It wasn’t my fault. there were things going on around me, distractions. No there weren’t.There wasn’t anything at all. Just four people. Soon the things on the room seemed to be getting less cluttered. I thought i saw some things actually vanish. The the girl with the wet cuffs had left and i thought about what her name might have been, She looked like an Amy. Then Mateo and Pavlova were out of the picture. Before I could turn around the smoking girl was gone. I felt like i was about to become dizzy but I woke up because it was a dream.
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