Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Micro Story

NOTE: I've been listening this afternoon to an all-90s playlist on iMeem and it inspired me (if that's the phrase I want) to write an extremely short story... a "Micro Story," if you will. Hope this doesn't come across as unbearably pretentious and, parenthetically, I hope you like it. If not, hey, that's the way the cookie crumbles... we'll never speak of it again. But if you do, drop me a line to let me know. There may be more Micro Stories to come. So yeah... qualifiers in place, let's get it on...

Jane Says

We're listening to the radio, some 90s themed station and isn't it weird that they've got THOSE now, and when some old Jane's Addiction comes on, you get this smile on your face like the song was time travel back to a place outside this apartment, this town, where you may not have been happy but at least you knew what "happy" looked like. You close your eyes... really feeling the song... and I take a swallow from my drink. I just sit there; I don't want to interrupt your moment because obviously you're enjoying it... savoring it, even... and ruining that would make you like me less. And frankly, I'd like to have sex with you again.

The song ends... some Third Eye Blind song comes on and you're back to our world, back to our one-bedroom, fifth-floor walk-up reality. Welcome. And sorry about the mess.

"Man... that really sends me, you know? Really SENDS me..." you say, pouring some more of my cheap vodka into your Six Flags souvenir coffee mug. You drink it down in a gulp and squint your eyes at the burn. You flop back on the bed and I stroke your bare stomach with my fingertips. You run your fingers through my hair and we lay just like that for a long time.

The radio station cycles through some REM, some Sublime, a back-to-back music block of Matchbox 20, Silverchair, Tonic, and some other stuff. We let it run over us like a rising tide; the nostalgic flood waters of our youth. Soon, we're asleep. Soon it's morning.

We wake up with hangovers and go to our jobs and at separate points during our respective days, we each think about high school and how we really should have studied harder.

Things would be so different now.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Me likey. I vote for more.

5:50 PM  
Blogger Bill From Gainesville said...

C-dog -- by the time High School came along it was to late for me, I think back to middle school should have done more then... Ahhh nostalgia

7:04 PM  
Blogger Todd said...

Great story bro. Keep 'em coming!

11:35 PM  
Blogger Clinton said...

Meg, Todd... Thanks, guys! We'll see what happens...

Bill... Nostalgia indeed. This whole thing came about because I was listening to all these songs and each one reminded me of times drinking or having sex and... all that's wonderful, don't get me wrong... but it was like, "Wow, I really did NOTHING to further my life, did I?" Maybe you're not supposed to when you're that age, but I don't know... I just wish I'd taken shit a little more seriously.

10:11 AM  
Blogger Liöüx said...

Great.

Now these commercials are stuck in my head.

Thanks, Clinton!

12:02 PM  
Blogger Alienwhere said...

Awesome. It's like exactly the kind of vignette that often wanders through my mind before I decide not to commit it to memory, or a keyboard. Nice job, dude.

7:05 PM  
Blogger Clinton said...

Thanks dude! The micro stories genre fits well with me and my micro attention span.

8:14 AM  

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