Friday, October 29, 2004

Sucking My Blood

"Last name? ... Date of birth? ... Anything to eat or drink this morning? ... Have a seat."

At 7:05 AM I was in line at the Lah-bore-ah-tor-ee. My Halloween costume was simple. I was a willing vampire victim. I climbed up into the blood sucking chair and offered my arm.

"Make a fist," said a minion of the Count.

She tied a rubber band around my bicep. I caught unwholesome shapes in my periphery, so I looked away. Tacked at eye-level was a fascinating piece of paper. Look! Suddenly the most fascinating piece of paper I ever had occasion to see, right there on the wall. It had ink outlines of different shells. A caption read, "Find three that are the same." I studied it. I traced the curve of each shell with my eyes. I pretended the triplets were harder to spot than they were.

Vlad sunk his teeth into my vein. He drank me dry.

If life's not beautiful without the pain,
well I'd just rather never ever even see beauty again.
The View -- Modest Mouse
I went to Starbuck's. I bought a venti pumpkin spice frappuccino no whip and a cheese danish. I went to work. It seemed like the thing to do.

Tomorrow we retrieve our kitten.

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