Bring Everybody: Stories

Chapter 9 - Twenty-two Flamingos

BOOKCOMP, Inc. — University of Massachusetts Press / Page 95 / Printer Proof / Bring Everybody / Yates 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 [95], (95) Lines: 1295 to 1309 ——— 13.9pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [95], (95) Twenty-two Flamingos Beryl is often blue, considering letting it all slide, jettisoning her principles as she did the grapefruit diet. She looks at the neighborhood, how it hangs there, like cellulite on the civic body, a place to make you think that, very locally, entropy has speeded up. What sorts out as a yard sale elsewhere is, in these streets, a family’s things more or less spread. Nothing for sale but nearly everything up for repossess. Late at night, garbage exhales, an audible soughing that wafts up and about the Christmas lights strung year-round but burned out or broken, many popped by the summer heat. Grocery carts nose into curbs, or tipped, lie down and out in the weeds. Beryl has to wonder, with such an attitude toward the supermarket so in evidence, just how’s a girl to summon some municipal pride, some community sing? But the real problem is Beryl’s being between men. So when she meets Dimitri, possibility pumps. For instance, he says they can vote with their feet and passports. “Greece,” he tells her, where he still has family. “Some taverna by the sea. Just retsina ourselves to death. Overboard this place.” But maybe no need to. With him around, her heart rebooted, even the here looks livable. Dimitri, she has noticed, turns nouns into verbs with a thrilling recklessness. She is smitten and begins reassessing relationships with neighbors and sundry stuff in the streets—muggers and druggers, low riders, high riders, Chevys on – 95 – BOOKCOMP, Inc. — University of Massachusetts Press / Page 96 / Printer Proof / Bring Everybody / Yates Bring Everybody – 96 – 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 [96], (96) Lines: 1309 to 1331 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [96], (96) cinder blocks, even old computers on cider blocks—God’s plenty in a lover’s eyes. Beryl herself drives a former U.S. Postal jeep with right-hand drive as she delivers the morning newspapers. She leases the jeep from Armand, her neighbor, who bought it at auction and had it painted camouflage. In the early morning fog, Beryl feels nefarious , on a special mission. Armand also has a van replete with a scene. “You think of a place where you would rather be, and they paint it on,” he tells Beryl. Time was she could think of many; now it’s wherever Dimitri plants his handsome feet. Armand’s scene is a bowling alley, lanes executed in deep perspective and reflection marks all aglisten. “I thought it was supposed to be an outdoor picture,” says Beryl. “Not necessarily,” he says. Armand notes that polishing the van scene elicits a reverie of waxing the hardwood floors of those bowling alleys, drawing one in, a form of meditation if you will. “See what I’m saying?” he asks. Asks this while raking and bagging leaves, scrupulous to maintain species integrity by bag. No one else does that. No one else around her rakes. No one else has trees. In this neighborhood, Armand stands up for spiffy and is not well liked. People speculate about his sock drawer, but Beryl wants alliance. She has started waxing the van for Armand, thus shaving her lease on the jeep, and since throwing newspapers maintains her right arm, she waxes left arm exclusively. Beryl is justifiably proud of her strong arms but distressed at their size. Dimitri has installed a new answering machine for his phone and is at Beryl’s to call himself. It’s a phone test. “Do I sound like that?” he asks, Beryl’s receiver to his ear. “I think it distorts.” “How did you sound?” she asks. “Not right.” “How not right?” “Hear for yourself. Call me.” BOOKCOMP, Inc. — University of Massachusetts Press / Page 97 / Printer Proof / Bring Everybody / Yates Twenty-two Flamingos – 97 – 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11...