The Distortions by Christopher Linforth

Author:Christopher Linforth [Linforth, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction
Publisher: Orison Books
Published: 2022-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

The heat of the tram felt welcoming after the cold walk through Ban Jelačić Square. Licitar hearts attached to the lampposts shone a sickly red. Marc suppressed his laughter over the tacky Christmas tradition. The plastic hearts were strung up throughout the city. Commercialized as much as Coca-Cola.

The tram juddered as it left the stop. Zorana went to the far end of the car and sat in one of the Day-Glo orange seats. Marc hung on grimly to a metal pole near the doors and watched a man on the street steal an ornamental heart from a tree and then swig a mouthful of beer from his bottle of Karlovačko. Snow fell in large clumps, and the man stuck out his tongue to catch snowflakes. He kept his tongue out, snow layering the pink muscle in a semi-translucent white. Marc envied such curiosity with the world. He had spent years researching his dissertation, finally writing over four hundred pages on the narrative structures of Russian folktales. How much he valued his work was unclear to him. Time away from his academic life in New York had shown him he preferred aesthetic pleasures: the experience of women, not books or scholarship.

As the tram curved around the mirrored façade of an office building, he glanced back to see if Zorana was looking his way. She was slouching forward, staring into the glowing screen of her iPhone.

“Hey,” he said, slightly disappointed. “Did you see the guy take the licitar?”

“I hate all that heart of the country stuff. It’s bullshit.”

“We have a similar idea back in the States,” he said. “The Midwest as the heartland.”

“I don’t give a shit about America. Your country has a bland mindset. A detachment from the rest of the world.” She rubbed her forehead with her pinky. The crimson nail polish was chipped.

“Are you tired?”

“No,” she said. “I don’t want to go home.”

Marc walked over and motioned for her to make room. “I thought that was the plan.”

“I haven’t made up my mind.”

He kneeled on the seat in front and faced her. “Is that so?”

“I have heard about you,” she said.

“Oh?”

“You have a reputation.”

“Only good, I hope.”

She laughed. “No. Not at all. But I’m intrigued.”

“As you should be.”

“Of course,” she said. “That’s why I followed you.”

“So, no coincidence?”

“Coincidences make for bad fiction.”

“Indeed, and I read enough in grad school to last a lifetime.”

“Do you miss home?”

“New York,” he said. “Sometimes.”

“I want to leave Croatia. Get a job overseas.”

Her phone buzzed. Zorana dipped her head and thumbed off a text. She sent a few more and Marc sat in the seat properly. He considered texting one of his past waitress lovers or calling one of the escort agencies he had seen advertised in his sex magazine. The grainy images of women in bikinis and leather bodysuits, undoubtedly plucked from the web, appealed to his love of surface: the vessel, rather than the soul.

He stared out the window. On the outside of the glass tiny white lines of furred ice splintered into jagged forks.

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.