Ultraluminous by Katherine Faw

Author:Katherine Faw
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

* * *

In the middle of a Romanian movie I think I have seen before I close my eyes and when I come to I can’t decide if the scene has changed or if my computer was stuck and spinning the whole time and it only woke up when I did.

“Viorel,” the man says.

That’s his name. When a man says his name it is important that I remember it. It’s good for my livelihood. I think about my real name.

“Viorel,” I say.

* * *

“Would you say you’re a venal man?”

“I don’t really know what that means.”

“Look it up on your phone.”

The guy who buys me things doesn’t.

“I would say you’re a venal woman,” he says.

We’re stuck in traffic. He already came. It’s that drowsy, piss-colored afternoon light in New York.

“Would you say money is the most important thing in the world?”

“Yes,” I say.

* * *

“This place has really gone downhill,” the junk-bond guy says.

I spin our lazy Susan. I keep looking around for the dessert-cart lady because I want an egg custard that will only be texture, no taste. We’re on the sixth floor of a dim-sum parlor on East Broadway and the carpet is crunchy and I feel safe. The junk-bond guy sticks his fork in the gelatinous brown sauce of the clams. It stands straight up.

“It’s exactly the same,” I say.

* * *

I can walk for blocks and blocks. I’m fucked-up and it feels like floating. It rains for three days and then it commits to mildness. I throw my puffy coat in a trash can.

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