Dear Friends,
What does this Sunday hold for you? What will it truly hold for any of us? Who knows.
As I ease into my day, I am brightened by the prospect of it’s true gift. Will it be a day of rest? Probably not, but it will be a day. Our day. Enjoy it. Cease it. Be.
Here’s the next installment of “The Bet”…I’m going to post the whole thing pretty soon. Well, the whole thing up to this point. I put all of Mary, thanks to Q, up yesterday. It’s on the Ergonomic Fiction page.
*****
Winny looked up at Jonathan’s face.
“Hi Winona,” the dead man said.
“Hi Jonathan.”
“Sorry to wake you, sweetheart.”
“It’s okay. I knew you were coming.”
Jonathan leaned in and gave Winny a kiss on her forehead.
“I always loved you guys, Winona. Never forget that.”
“I won’t. Are you going now?” Winny asked.
“I am. You might see me again, but I don’t know… I don’t know who you will see.”
“I understand. Are you mad at my mom?”
Jonathan shifted his body back, so he was almost sitting straight up on the edge of Winny’s bed.
“Why do you ask that?” he asked.
“Because I am. She did this to us.”
Jonathan wasn’t sure what to say. As dead as he was, he was still able to get a sense of the stronger feelings he had been used to dismissing a bit more than 24 hours earlier. The speed of his transition had been staggering, but little glimpses of what once had been still found him.
Winny’s voice brought him back to life for a few seconds.
“What did she do?” he asked.
“She made a bet with Jimmy and he always wins his bets. He told me himself.”
“Who is Jimmy, Winona?”
“The guy from the movie. The guy with the evil brain.”
Jonathan flashed to his last moment with Marcy. What had she said, he thought. “I bet it’s full of bottles” or something like that and his half empty recycling can was full of bottles.
“Your mom said, ‘bet’ to me the last time I saw her. She bet me my blue can was full of bottles.”
“I know.”
Jonathan was starting feel like someone was messing with him.
“How do you know, Win?”
“Jimmy told me he was going to put you in his movie.”
“What movie are you talking about?”
“Jimmy’s Brain. It’s Mom’s favorite.”
“I remember her talking about it. I think it was on at one of your parties once. Funny movie.”
“Not anymore. Jimmy is in love with my mom.”
Now Jonathan really felt like someone was messing with him. He had been dead for hours, came back to see the only people he really considered family, and Winny tells him all this.
To Winny, it seemed like there was a twinkle in the dead man’s eyes. It made Winny smile.
“It’s been a long day,” he said.
“I bet,” Winny said.
Jonathan winced.
“Please don’t say that word, Winona. Okay? … (he paused for a bit) before adding, “In fact, never say it again.”
“Why?”
“I think, maybe, it kills.”
*****
See you tomorrow.
So, there was this time where I was being a bad person, so I had to play racquetball with 700 blind dudes. They were "Shirts" and well, you know the rest.
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