Courtesy Freepix.com
by Rebecca Tiger
She says the right things except when she says the wrong ones like when she told her last lover that she was beautiful in candlelight, why not every light? People wonder about her; she wonders about things she can’t name, give words to, it’s mixed in her head, Greek, French, sometimes a little English, though that is the clunkiest in her brain, her mouth, her ears and when the conversation is bustling with ouzo-loosened tongues, she walks away, wanders as if bored, her friends ask each other: is she bored? No, someone reassures, an idea has gotten into her head, she can’t explain it, what we are saying is being crowded out with music, ideas, sounds. She goes to the kitchen and does the dishes, fills the sink with warm frothy water, plunges her hands in to clean the debris from the plates, bits of seafood, mussels, shrimp, octopus permitted for Lent, to clean as notes swirl in her mind. Should we go her friends wonder and as they start to look for coats and scarves, phones, bags, almost-empty cigarette packs and lighters, she comes back and puts on music, the scene needs music and tonight it is Gregorian chants which is making her guests feel like they must leave, that she is playing the soundtrack of slow departure, preparing the scene of drawn out thank you and it was wonderful and next year I will host, no I will. But they are not ready to go so they say play one of your compositions and when she does, someone says it sounds Japanese and her best friend who was once also a her lover explains what she knows, that the song was inspired by a haiku and she calls her best friend over and whispers something to her and her ex-lover says to the group, this music is for listening to with your eyes closed, she would like you to lean your heads back and stop talking; she would like you to stay.
Rebecca Tiger teaches sociology at Middlebury college and in jails in Vermont and lives part-time in New York City. She writes on the long train ride to and from work. You can find her published stories at rebeccatigerwriter.com and her brief thoughts on twitter: @rtigernyc.
