Divining Rod: A Novel by Michael Knight

Author:Michael Knight [Knight, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Literary
ISBN: 9780802196996
Google: _P5t1oec1c4C
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Published: 2010-08-03T04:00:00+00:00

The Fine Art of Foul Language

From her front porch, Mrs. Fowler could see his house. In the evening, at what had been the time of Simon’s regular visit, the sun would throw shaky white light against the windows and sometimes, if she let herself, she could almost mistake the light on glass for motion inside. She imagined that it had been like that for Delia and Simon, a trick of the light. They had allowed themselves to look away from their lives for a moment and the world seemed different in the peripheries of their vision, everything harmless and electric, trembling with possibility. Even now, when he came to her in her sleep, she could hear Simon saying, Funny, in this surprised, saddened little-boy voice, like he should have known better, Funny, like he should have seen it coming from a mile away.

Every afternoon, she had waited for him on her porch. They’d talk and wait for the sun to slip behind her house. Simon promised to teach her how to use profanity, but whenever she tried cursing, he’d blush and fidget in his chair. It hadn’t much mattered to Mrs. Fowler whether she learned to curse or not. She enjoyed the company, particularly the company of this young man. He had a way of looking at you that made it seem as if your words were the most interesting and engaging anyone had ever spoken. His father had been the same way, leaning forward in his chair, his eyebrows raised, his watery blue eyes a premonition of his son’s. She found that she couldn’t keep her mouth shut around either of them.

“You know what word I like? I like that word Fuck,” she said. “I read it in a book. I think that’s the filthiest-sounding word in the English language.”

It was evening, Simon just off work, still wearing his tie, his jacket draped over the back of the folding chair. He laughed uncomfortably and rubbed his knees, the skin at his hairline going pink.

He said, “It’s nasty all right. But I don’t see how you’re going to work it in the next time you hear from that little girl. It wouldn’t make any sense.”

“Why not?” she said. “I might say, ‘You little fuck, get the hell on out of here. Leave an old woman alone.’ Now, why wouldn’t that make sense?”

“I suppose it’s grammatically correct and everything. But you’re missing the point a little. Curse words, like all the other words in the English language, have very specific meanings and implications. Just because a word is dirty, doesn’t necessarily make for a quality insult.”

“You should have been a college professor,” she said.

“Or an attorney,” he said. “Two professions equally full of . . . ”

He looked at the ground and waved his hand in a circle to indicate that there was more, but he didn’t say anything else. A breeze moved across the porch making her wind chime tick like bone.

“Shit,” she finished. “There’s a good one.”

“What? Shit?”

“Full of shit,” she said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.