A Free Lunch
Three shorts
In the Open
This is my backyard. There are no fences or floodlights. I don’t use my maiden name on this blog because I don’t want to hide.
This is where I live now. Thanks to Jerry and Mike and lots of other guys who pitched in, I’m out of the piece of shit’s house.
Undisclosed fucking location. Don’t bother looking in the metadata of this photo for GPS information, because it’s been stripped out. Get your clues from the woods. Sniff them out. Even I don’t know the names of the trees yet, so give it a shot.
As many of you know, I’ve been telling my story out in the open. I’m literally breathing fresh air. My nearest neighbor lives a half mile away, in a trailer like mine.
I retire at the end of the year. I plan to start a garden, but I’ll keep a portion of my yard wild, where nature can go for it.
Bad Words
Bad words I’ve learned: Shut Up, Stupid, Retard, Sick-Face, Liar, Jerk-Off and Fucking in the Butt. My dad’s fucking in the butt stupid. I want my mom to shut up. I’m a liar sometimes.
This Saturday morning my dad’s excited about selling these antlers, which were in my grandparents’ house since before I was born. When they died two days apart, we started selling almost everything they owned.
Except for these stupid antlers. These have stuck around, says my dad, because my grandparents wanted someone to love them.
I lied about brushing my teeth this morning. Taking this picture is the first thing I did after my time-out was over. It is jerk-off boring.
My dad never wears shirts around the house, either. I am like him in many ways.
Hate is another bad word. I say it at school all the time. I will hate this picture—I know this even as I look into the camera. I will look stupid, but the antlers will look like they did before I was born. Antlers are dead things.
A Free Lunch
My mother embroidered my jeans, but my sweater came with the flower already on it.
We found these antlers in the woods. The animal who made these is dead, my father says.
They feel smooth, like rock. My father wants to sell them to someone who carves antlers. Maybe they’ll end up as a cigarette lighter case or something else decorative. It’s a free lunch, he says.
This is the youngest picture of me online. I will always be here.