Road Page

Sparkle Ditch - #24

Over the weekend I was driving by myself from Delaware back to Brooklyn. Sometimes I get random ideas for stories (or happenings within stories) when doing something that allows my mind to wander—like dishes, showering, or traveling long stretches of interstate.

I passed two consecutive signs that caught my attention. I asked Siri (an Irish woman in my phone) to “take a note” and then dictated an idea in 32 words (I just now counted in my Notes app).

Later, when I’d stopped for gas and gummy bears, something happened in the APlus Convenience Store. A couple of exits later that minor event turned into another idea. Again, I dictated a thought to Siri, this time in 33 words (just checked).

By Monday afternoon I had a moment to sit and think about what I wanted to do for this latest Sparkle Ditch. I remembered the two notes I’d spoken into the phone, went back and read them, then wrote the following story from otherwise all brand new sentences.

The two ideas in the app are not even central to the story. But I’m not saying what they are. It’s more fun if you see it all for the first time, just as I did when I wrote it. But if you’re curious what happened along the road to spark this thing, feel free to ask.

Thank you for everything,

ox—JO

Lavender

Anne had not seen her friend from college since graduation nearly three years ago. Naomi had moved to London for a job the summer after school ended. Naomi was now back to tend to a sick parent, while Anne, who’d never made it out of Potsdam, had lots of questions. The two girls were on stools at Maxfield’s, the only bar in town that wasn’t completely disgusting. There was a man next to them in a Yankees hat staring at the baseball game on TV. Apart from him the only other person in there was the bartender, a guy whom Anne was pretty sure she’d gone to grade school with (but she had zero interest in asking). As they drank their beers, Anne of course had questions about Naomi’s mom’s disease, but she had even more questions about what it was like for Naomi living in a big city, overseas no less. And what was it like to go from that to this. To leave London to come back to this tiny icicle town. Naomi answered every item on the quiz, making sure to thrill Anne with the different things they say in London like jumper, loo, daft, hire car, and takin’ the piss. Anne howled at this, and as talk moved into dorm room tales and silly boy stories, the laughter from both grew. The man next to them had twice already made the effort to give mean glares for their noise and joy, but this time he spoke. “Either you two quiet down or you take the tea party back to the sorority.” The first thought Anne had was, aw poor guy probably doesn’t have any friends of his own. Naomi thought to herself, what a tosser. As Anne lifter her beer, happy to avoid confrontation, Naomi spat back, “It’s not like there’s anything to hear, it’s baseball.” The man looked ready to get into it but grumbled and went back to the screen. Naomi rolled her eyes to Anne and brought up someone named Troy, with whom Anne had once apparently fooled around handily under the table at Mario’s Pizza. Anne retaliated by reminding Naomi she’d once thrown up into the clothes hamper at her mom’s house when they busted into the peach schnapps. The laughs peaked, then softened down as talk returned to Naomi’s mom. She’d lost so much weight. Couldn’t get out of bed. Naomi was grateful her mom still had her mind. She was as funny as ever. Naomi was also, “grateful for the Fredericas.” Naomi had two older sisters. Twins. Their mother named the first one that came out South Frederica, and the one that followed she named North Frederica. Both still being somewhat nearby, S. Frederica in Syracuse and N. Frederica in Plattsburgh, they’d come to help as well. Anne had enough beer in her to ask Naomi, “Is your mom going to die?” Naomi stared into her empty glass and whispered, “I don’t want her to.” Anne interlaced her fingers with Naomi’s and they looked silently into each other. They got up to leave. As they reached the door the man turned and said with a loud chuckle, “Leaving so soon?” Naomi walked back, pulling Anne, their hands still locked, and calmly said, “I hope the Yankees lose.” Then she bopped the bill on his hat like he was her son and out they went.