Exceeding Capacity

1. 1. There were fifteen of us in the elevator.

2. 2. We were headed for a room with a sparkling stone fountain inside, a lush garden with a curling path and smooth stone benches.

3. 3. Up there was a full bar, amid roses.

4. 4. I handed Karen a name tag. The name tag read ‘Jeff.’

5. 5. Jeff said to Karen, ‘I love you.’ She gave him his name tag.

6. 6. The elevator smelled of watermelon.

7. 7. We were in this together.

8. 8. Unspoken, the goal, the ideal, was to build a city.

9. 9. Along with the wars, public information had withered our private lives to hypocrisy.

10. 10. I gave out name tags to the people in the elevator: Li, Armando, Karen, Tori, Seth, Grace, Lily, Jeff, Sheree, Justin, Michael, Enzo, Evelyn, Shalis.

11. 11. Grace asked Tori for a light.

12. 12. I said, ‘No, no smoking inside.’

13. 13. The elevator was going up.

14. 14. Jeff stumbled.

15. 15. In the dim brown waist-highness of the elevator, Jeff patted Karen’s rump.

1. 1. It was Tuesday.

2. 2. Passing the fifth floor, Karen thought, No more of that wrinkled old mouth and burlap-sack tongue.

3. 3. She was thinking of Jeff.

4. 4. His mouth.

5. 5. When Michael asked Li to guesstimate the overall value of the stuff on the table, Li said, ‘Forty dollars.’

6. 6. They were in her apartment, in the morning, in Chicago.

7. 7. On the table were an apple, a scarf, and a laptop computer.

8. 8. Li and Michael made love on the couch, then, in the afternoon.

9. 9. We had a good time watching.

10. 10. When Jeff phoned, he said Karen was in the kitchen, preparing beef bourguignon, while he, Jeff, was holed up in his study smelling various fruits he had placed in plastic bags.

11. 11. Later that evening, at their apartment, five of us—Jeff, Karen, Michael, Li, and I—stood by the window and peered at the city below. Our city. Rising up before us in the blue and yellow night.

12. 12. ‘Beautiful,’ said Li, the next day, when a big brown package arrived.

13. 13. Michael cut through the cardboard with a stainless steel pocket knife.

14. 14. Inside were the correct books.

15. 15. We saw dead lions in a chicken yard. We saw children playing soccer.

1. 1. Our discourses were Tragic, Evil, and Sadly Inadequate.

2. 2. Enzo told jokes. Thirty thousand, in fact, and we laughed politely.

3. 3. The elevator smelled of watermelon. We smiled. We were sorry for what we had done, which confused us, because we hadn’t done anything at all. Karen was sad about Jeff.

4. 4. I loathed him.

5. 5. In August you flew to Denmark and picnicked in a field.

6. 6. Armando stepped out from behind a rose bush. He had been working in Copenhagen, he said.

7. 7. While Jeff sat by a tree and watched, Armando knelt beside Karen and kissed her on the mouth. ‘I do this to comfort you,’ he said to Karen.

8. 8. The cure for pain is in the pain, thought Jeff, who lay on the ground. She’s my wife, he thought.

9. 9. Later that evening, in her room with Jeff, Karen read Armando’s note, which described her fingers as ‘ten sister maids of slender form.’

10. 10. War itself, said Armando, was a metaphor.

11. 11. Representing emotions, he said. Dark emotions, suppressed emotions.

12. 12. ‘While overhead the war planes…’

13. 13. Karen frowned.

14. 14. She couldn’t remember in what style Armando played the flute. I should know that, she thought, and called him. Armando was already in Spain. They laughed on the phone for hours.

15. 15. Back home, reviewing his notes, Jeff hunched over his desk: ‘From the dust of the earth to the spirit of man, I find nothing in creation that is odorless. Me included. I am a man who exudes aroma. Dogs, mystics, normal people with a keen sense of smell—they all recognize my personal scent. I think four things are at play here: spiritual advancement, regular thought patterns, hygiene, and health. Note that St. Francis of Assisi smelled of lemon; St. Cajetan of orange blossoms; St. Catherine of violets...