The King of the Sea Monkeys by Mark E. Cull

Author:Mark E. Cull [Cull, Mark E]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781550719918
Publisher: Guernica Editions Inc
Published: 2015-08-17T00:00:00+00:00

12

Fruit Salad

SATURDAY EVENING CAME and went. A checkers game was cancelled because one of the players didn’t come home Friday night. It wasn’t discovered until Saturday afternoon, and some people from the center’s main office spent the afternoon talking to residents at the apartment building trying to figure out where he could have gone.

On Sunday he was still missing, though everyone was quickly losing interest. I had already forgotten what he looked like. Sam said that if his place was empty for more than two weeks the center would give the apartment to a new resident. There was a long list of people who were willing to get jobs and work in order to live at the apartments.

“It’s Sunday, what’s for dinner?” Sam asked.

I looked at him twice to see if he was joking. If it were Saturday I would know that he was making fun of the meal situation at the new house.

“I don’t know. Macaroni and cheese?”

This seemed like a good guess because many nights I ate macaroni and cheese, though I could eat whatever I wanted. I liked the way macaroni and cheese smelled. Sam often frowned when he saw what I ate. He liked fruit and vegetables, which I really didn’t like at all.

“I don’t think so,” Sam said heading out the front door.

I didn’t know where he was going. I didn’t want him to leave before I really did know what was for dinner. I caught him before he got to the bottom of the stairs. I insisted that he tell me.

“God,” he said. “Your dinner tonight will be God.”

I told him that that wasn’t funny. Maybe what he was saying was one of those metaphors of his. He should have known that, if it were a metaphor, I wasn’t going to be able to understand it. Sam and I had never talked about God. What I knew about God was pretty much nothing, though I had definitely heard the word before. I vaguely had a sense of the meaning. God is creator, God is love, God blah-blah-blah. Sam had to know that I was going to be hungry soon. If I didn’t eat, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.

He smiled as I begged for a straight answer. He said that, if everyone gave me the answers I wanted, I would never be able to open my eyes.

“It’s better your eyes are open knowing you’re in a garbage dump than it is to be sleeping, dreaming you are in paradise. Sorry to be yanking your chain all of the time, but somebody needs to. There’s fruit salad in the refrigerator. That’s all we’ve got. You’re going to need to go to the market tomorrow. There’s one next to that hardware store of yours.”

I was glad he mentioned the hardware store because I had almost forgotten to buy that hammer I was going to need. I wondered if Sam knew I hadn’t bought one yet. I probably would have told him if I had figured out what I was supposed to do with that chisel.

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