| Four
This was the summer in which I returned home to the city after college graduation (just my luck, in search of a job and no way to get around). Things were unfamiliar, things had changed. I walked thinking I was going the right way but ended up on a street I did not know, busy with people who did not know me. I passed a park. There the wind troubled the leaves and the boys troubled each other, sitting on benches, choking on marijuana smoke. I asked for directions, but nobody seemed to know. I got scared for Murk. I got mad at you. I reached an avenue crowded with shops. I came upon a Korean nail salon on the corner and paused in front of its open doors. I tried to gather myself but the smell of polish wafted out and I was made dizzy. I was lulled. I turned and blinked at the little Korean girls behind the windows with white surgical masks over their faces. I wondered how anybody could be getting their nails done with the city all messed up like it was, with the whole world going crazy like it had. Page four |