Monthly Archives: September 2021

Clutching

The heat was unbearable some days. During summer, a pool was a necessity, or access to a canal or reservoirs. People felt lethargic. Getting anything done in the summer heat was impossible.

If pools weren’t affordable, someone might put out the sprinkler and enjoy the cool water as it hits your back and you run through.

Or if nothing else, you find a neighbor who defies watering laws and keeps his sprinklers on, and you run through!

The sun beats down during these months. Nothing will save you, and if you’re pale-skinned, you’ll rue the day you forgot your SPF.

People like to stroll along the canals. We didn’t have lakes or the ocean here, but canals. And a few rivers, but they were apart from the city. For whatever reason, the city was not built around them, but away.

To make Modesto livable, one had to appreciate its pace. It was slower. People took more time with one another. One might sit out on the porch for sometime.

“There go the fireworks again,” he complained

The train ran nightly. If you listened, it was there. It was close to the residential area downtown.

People were seen sleeping on the bus stops past 10, after the last bus stops. Everyone knew these folks weren’t really going anywhere. The lady laying with her newspaper over her head, unconsciously clutching at the few things she had left with her.

A Place Beyond

She got along with her family, did a lot out of obligation, though.

She liked him because he seemed pretty ok with who he was. He didn’t think they would work though.

The biker gang prepared free meals at the park. He sat down for coffee with his friends there. They invited him over, had known him for a while. One was applying to law school. His other close friend spent hours poring over financial data, doing strategic planning.

He met her for coffee later. She told him that she could see his brokenness in his eyes, exhaustion in the dark circles. He just laughed.

He felt so tired. He couldn’t bother to make the effort most days. Where had all his energy gone? His youth? He was searching for it somewhere.

The cars drove by, under the underpass. They threw cans at them, watched their blurred colors. As the night wore on, they just saw lights on lights. Heard the sirens and the horns. What the fuck were they doing there?

This barren landscape.

There wasn’t anything else for miles around. They could see the hills in the distance but only unfolding fields until then.

The wind swept up and blew them back a little. She felt the curdoury on her skin, liked how it felt. He glanced at her.

Someone drove a little to close to them, and he yelled “fuck you asshole”

He threw a rock at the car. “Dick should’ve been looking.”