p / n

  • In the woods around my father's house, I helped gather clothes hangers. They were a valuable and rare commodity and we were all hurrying. The girl said not to worry, she'd be writing a book while in the hospital. I encouraged her, and acted happy to hear it, but I knew it would be crap.

    The older woman, picking through the weeds and sticks, saw the article and read it. She asked what I had meant by "he was a terrible person but there was one thing I liked." She wanted to know the one thing. I told her I had enjoyed the way he lied to me. She said "Oh. One would think you'd have put it the other way round - 'though I suppose there were a few good things about him, he was a hateful liar.'   I thought about it and said "Yes. You would think that."

  • She was yelling through the transmission, she wanted to know whether I was using the handheld or the stationary. I lied but she found me out and I started yelling too. "I can't get a decent shot with the handheld, how do you expect me to film myself with a camera I'm holding?" To infuriate her I left the camera running, pointed at a gray wall of corrugated aluminum.
  • I drove for hours trying to get to Paula's house and couldn't figure out what wrong turn I must have taken. I ended up dead-ending in a gravel lot by a chicken feed factory. Paula was talking to me though she was not there. I turned around and drove and drove some more but everything was turned around and I would never get un-lost.