The passenger is out of control: a dumb tale of abject inconsequence
2nd August 2009Rounding the bend in his fast blue car she didn’t feel fearless. She never felt fearless in the passenger’s seat. The passenger is out of control. He asked whether she was nervous and quietly she smiled, tightly gripping leather. She had wanted to appear fearless, seating arrangement notwithstanding.
Had she had a premonition? It is quite possible. In hindsight, anything can be translated in terms of foreboding. In hindsight, their love was plastic, flat. But who’s to say what the properties of love should be?
He took the curve too tightly, too steeply, too suddenly. An oncoming car. A tree. Your usual. Blue like crushed paper hugging thick, ragged tree trunk. Girl pinned to the seat by large stabbing branch through her flimsy chest. Glass. Cuts. Contusions. Etc.
He shook. He cried. He did all the expected things: sat blankly, screamed a little, asked for God, begged for forgiveness, cursed. She only stared. Every so often she’d lower her eyelashes like intricate Spanish fans casting long dark shadows on her cheekbones. Gingerly she’d finger the blood spurts, looking more confused than in pain. Dribbling streams from the corners of her pale mouth. Her brows bushy caterpillars, crawling toward each other in shock.
His love-plastic melted, running rivers in tandem with her insides. I’m sorry, oh, God. I’m so sorry. Her eyes said, it can’t be helped, Jack. It can’t be helped.
2nd August 2009 at 8:49 pm
really really really good. made me hate you actually…. (catfight!)
2nd August 2009 at 11:05 pm
Great text you wrote, I am just going to say a title of a song:
“an airbag saved my llife”
3rd August 2009 at 1:21 am
Perfectly morbid and still perfect. Turns my heart inside out and my stomach upside down at the same time.
Especially love “But who’s to say what the properties of love should be?”
One of those delightful phrases.
4th August 2009 at 8:27 am
I like the second paragraph very much. And “too suddenly”.
4th August 2009 at 8:02 pm
xTx: Riiiiight, Ms I’ve-been-in-elimae, you’re so on.
Mariana: Hm, doesn’t ring a bell but I see the connection. I am quick like that.
Rose: Happy you enjoyed, dearest.
Jim: What, no changes? Score!
4th August 2009 at 9:24 pm
It’s very powerful.
11th August 2009 at 9:21 pm
This is a tightly wound, incredibly precise ditty. It comes across as a tragically true story…tragically humorous and tragically real. Lots of killer lines here. I love the “seating arrangement notwithstanding” and the item series “Your usual. Glass. Cuts…Etc.” The “etc” is sly and savvy.
20th August 2009 at 12:17 pm
Great descriptions - that bit ‘he did all the expected things’, so true, we think that events like this are so unique, so special, so one-off, but I’m sure they are all shockingly similar.