Last Bender

11.3
Lydia, out of nowhere, called to say she was in Chicago and would be arriving late the next night or early the morning after. She still had her key. We looked at her bed. It was the same bedding that had been there when she left. With no real enthusiasm we stripped it, flipped the [...]

11.2
And so when the time came to visit some of these places I had worked out plans. I didn’t go to Penn since I saw no reason to move to Philly. It was close enough to at least test the waters of commuting. Ditto New Haven. That left Baltimore, Ithaca and Providence.
“You wouldn’t move to [...]

11.1
I washed up the plates and poured a glass of wine and took off all my clothes and lay in bed. I put on TV and sat in the dark watching, waiting.
It was Iron Chef, not my favorite, so I watched This Old House and mostly gazed out the window at the helicopters and the [...]

10.4
There were no messages on the machine so I put on the TV and lay down on the bed and faced the sky above the buildings across the street. It was a clear night and still warm. I lay there not thinking, listening to book TV, until I started to get hungry. Nothing sounded good.
When [...]

10.3
Sally flew back to NY on Metro International, a charter out of Boston. She had spent the night there and was coming into LaGuardia. I was to pick her up alone and drive her out to the Island house for a weekend with the family. I parked the car with confusion and doubt and walked [...]

10.2
I rehearsed and recorded three more times with Joseph and Judy. Our rehearsals always began in auspicious ways. Judy and I sitting on the couch, feet up on the table, watching TV while Joseph set up. And just as inevitably, after recording two songs they would start to drink and people would start to drop [...]

10.
After the 4th it was brutally hot and I had no plans. I worked all week and tried to find things to do at night besides lie around obsessing that Sally was gone. I keened for her. I rent my garments, my chiton. Where had my wings gone? It was a constant throbbing disturbance of [...]

9.4
Roy pulled into the driveway. Our father moved a lot. This place was typical of his suburban phase. A fifties ranch on a mature cul de sac. The yard bordered woods. Behind the house was a kidney shaped pool and a putting green. There was a perennial border around the house with a white pebble [...]

9.3
I awoke early the next morning and had coffee alone by the open window. A fresh breeze blew in; the room was bright with early sun. I became absorbed in a book, emerged from the trance long enough to shower and dress and then returned to the chair for another hour. It was heating up. [...]

9.2
Busted. I blushed. I stammered. Douglas Eakens saved me when he walked in blinking behind his thick lenses, wisps of hair floating over the imperfectly bald top of his head. He was breathing loudly and he rubbed his hands together. “What time do you leave, Alex?”
“Eleven, tonight.”
“What a shame. I’m just now going out with [...]