by Robert Lopez
LAST NIGHT WHEN THEY SENT ME TO THE SHED FOR WOOD TO BURN I ALMOST DIDN'T COME BACK. I stayed out there in the shed and wondered what would happen if instead of going back inside I kept walking in another direction home. I’d already had a pile full of wood in my arms and was halfway out the shed door. This is when I heard Pity Jimmy screaming from his bedroom window and when I thought I should maybe run away and what difference would it make if I did. Pity Jimmy was screaming the turn has wormed the turn has wormed which is what he always screams when he knows I’m out in the shed. Time was you knew what Pity Jimmy had to say before he even said it and that it had nothing to do with you but those days are over now. I told him one time about the maggots or the faggots or whatever it is Blind Betty calls them and how that’s why I hate going out to the shed for wood to burn. These blindsters always remember whatever it is you tell them Pity Jimmy included. Must be because they don’t have to remember what anything looks like. Me I don’t know if I can remember what anything outside of this place looks like anymore. Blind Betty says this is what happens to you when you don’t eat your vegetables. She fingers all the Braille books on vegetables and memory so she knows about these things she says. She says by this time next month I’ll probably forget how to tie my own shoes. I have never forgotten how to tie my own shoes but have always had trouble keeping them tied. Sometimes I’ll look down and find the laces loose and have to bend down to retie them. This is why I don’t think I’ll forget how to tie my own shoes because I probably do it three or four times a day. But if Blind Betty says I’ll forget about home then she might be probably right given all the books she fingers. What I think I can remember is how the TV it squealed like a wounded bird and the refrigerator light never turned off. I took out all the racks and squeezed myself in once to make sure. I remember doing that as sure as anything. I don’t tell this to Blind Betty because why bother but I’m almost totally sure about the TV and refrigerator. I don’t know if it’ll be the same when I get back there but if it is then I’ll likely be home when I get home.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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For friendship and support and other substantive aid, the author gratefully acknowledges Samuel Ligon, Dan Wickett, Steven Gillis, Steven Seighman, JA Tyler, Toni Lopez, Nola Lopez, Christine and Brian Schunke, John Churneftsky, Alexandra Chasin, Nelly Reifler, Blake Butler, Joseph Salvatore, Derek White, Peter Markus, David McLendon, Andrew Richmond, Laura Minor, Matt Bell, David Hollander, Amy Hempel, Sam Lipsyte, Brian Evenson, Laird Hunt, Michael Martone, Dawn Raffel, Rebbecca Brown, Michael Kimball, Luca Dipierro, Amanda Stern, etc.
ABOUT ROBERT LOPEZ
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Robert Lopez is the author of Part of the World and Kamby Bolongo Mean River. He teaches at The New School, Pratt Institute and Columbia University and is a 2010 Fellow in Fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts.
