FIVE FICTIONS
from Immediate Strangers, Accounts Regarding the Possible
54.58.01
Adelina played the cello for eleven summers before Vincent determined a ravishing necessary. Other cellists anticipated this decision, like the fat array of olives served only on hillside lunches. "Time now for pressure," Vincent remarked to himself on the way to Adelina's dim studio, light being unnecessary in the best music. At one point in his walk, Vincent assured himself: Adelina's fingers will offer little resistance, fatigued from playing all day OR years of precise strikes will end this matter without the required commotion. Earlier, Vincent hired Caroline to turn musical scores from one page to the next and now that she committed the fingerprint of each crescendo to memory, she could not be replaced.
55.58.01
"How could my Jackson make such an error?" Miriam asked Lucian, the conspicuously short officer. How could the man, dressed in regulation and pinned up strategic, answer this distressed question? This might, as Lucian considered most mornings, be the afternoon of his leap for the town to whisper over at least a week. Lucian, unlike most of his kind, knew precisely why and what it would mean to those who said to others, "Yes, I knew Lucian" but really they did not. Different officers captured Jackson half-naked in the library as he attempted to borrow an entire section of foreign novels in languages still unnamed. The men in Lucian's brigade could not define his sorrow and theorized his delivery of sadness, especially to mothers who would also detect sorrow, and therefore, refrain from panic.
56.58.01
Caroline wrote Soren's confession with the very pencil used earlier to forge a letter of apology to the Governor. Soren mimicked the script of his childhood treasure: The Little Boy's Guide to Imagination. Dear Governor, It is my unfortunate duty to inform you of the following terrible events occurring in close proximity. A miniature King up river cast a spell on his water, thereby infecting the livestock, especially poultry. Moreover, according to calculations, the moon began closing the gap in each pressing night weeks ago. A collision must be considered imminent. Several women walked through town backwards, reportedly. This particular threat may be more dangerous that we assume. Loyally yours, Soren. The Governor ordered many buckets to empty the river and the chaos of how to extinguish the fragrant blaze of moaning farm stock lay patient hours away.
57.58.01
Marta, Hunger's prominent device, sings wretched to those drenched in chill and lack. Emma applied as Marta's sated cousin, days when both columns of patrons, Stuffed or Growling, insisted on life in closer than expected proximities. Dimitri, without bread for weeks, has not tinkered for a customer with money and Marta groaned in every tool. Adelina's restaurant window filtered starving vibrations before she tripled plate circumferences and made adjustments to optimal utensil capacity. Some men burst and some do not relish the delirium of hunger. From her ladder, Caroline affirmed Thirst Mechanics operated much the same way but with greatness at stake.
58.58.01
In Emma's triumphant bout against the local here, Vincent, she pinned, as required for victory, one elbow and one knee to the ground simultaneously. Elected officials gathered quickly and with the fear of widespread displeasure alive in them, decreed Emma's maneuvers to be Reminiscent of the Old Regime, and therefore, illegal sporting contraptions." Despite the grievous to Emma's pedestal and her clutch on the first place prize, cured pork wrapped in bitcher paper, she imagined the supper with loyal supporters in the low noon light. Vincent snatched the substantial meat and placed in Emma’s hands the second place sack of pins and buttons. One official, Soren, pleased with quick official action folded his hands behind his head and reclined far enough back to see the crowd hoist Emma into the Tree of Defeat.