© Sauce*Box, Summer 1996.
All rights revert to author.
Dumbo's Feather
by Dav
Amman
"I really loved Joe. I became this student
of his self. I knew everything there was to know about him. I knew that
the clock in his mother's kitchen was stuck at 3:13. I could guess when
he'd wear his ratty old Simpson's t-shirt."
"You mean that one that said 'Bart Simpson: Underachiever'?"
I asked.
She laughed to herself. "And proud of it, man." She paused for
just a second, and went on.
"I knew which restaurants he'd want to go to, and what he'd order
when he'd get there. I knew every centimeter of his body. From the two middle
toes that looked like mirror images of one another. to the mole on his right
thigh, to that stray hair that twisted out of his collar bone."
"I could have gone my whole life without hearing about Joe's stray
hairs,Rebecca. Jeez, now everytime I see him I'll be looking for this twisting
hair peaking outside of his collar bone."
She laughed. "Some people seem to think that too much information
about somebody will kill the love. Not me. I think love is in the little
things we choose to remember about someone. Things they might not even remembe
rthemselves."
"Love's in the details, huh?"
"Yeah, that's it. Love's in the details. And you can wrap yourself
up in these details. The way someone laughs, or the way they impersonate
EddieVedder, or the way they drive, or the way they're eyelashes flutter
when they hit REM sleep. These details keep you warm. It's almost like floating
inside of who they are. That's love."
"Sounds nice, Rebecca. So what happened?"
"You won't believe this, David. It had to do with that hair."
"Huh? What hair?" "The one growing out of his collar bone.
That stray lonely hair."
"Jesus, Becca, you broke up with a guy because of one hair? I know
women who date men with pelts on their backs, and ..."
"No, it wasn't that he had this hair. Just listen a sec, okay?"
"Okay."
"One night, after we had made love. I was laying my head on his chest.
He was dozing, and I was just running my fingers over him. And I saw this
hair, sitting their all alone. Like his DNA malfunctioned or something and
placed this one lone hair far away from all his brother hairs.
"And I started to look really closely at this hair. And before I
knew wha tcame over me, I just leaned over and yanked it out."
"Ouch"
Becca laughed. "That's what he said. He was like, 'What are you doing?'
soI told him that I yanked that hair out. He didn't even know he had a hair
there. 'Why'd you do that for?' 'I dunno', I said. And we both laughed and
went to sleep.
"And that morning I didn't love him anymore. I couldn't find myself
floating in those details anymore."
"Waitasec, Beck, you yanked out this hair of Joe's and then you fell
out of love with him?"
Becca nodded. "It was just like Dumbo's feather," she said.
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