“You’re apologizing? Seriously, what happened to you? Have you been taken over by a pod person?”
“Growling, Marcus put all of his strength behind his next swing, deflecting the blow meant to sever his head and snapping Roy's blade in two.
Dumb ass. That's what happened when you puchased weapons off of cable shopping networks.”
“What did you think I would do? Ask her if I could braid her hair after we gave each other facials and painted our toenails?
Marcus”
“Reordon,” a male voice came over the line.
“Chris, it’s Marcus.”
“Hey, man. How’s it going?”
“Not that great. I wrecked my bike.”
“Ah, hell. Not the Hayabusa.”
“That’s the one.”
“Please tell me it’s just a scratch.”
Marcus studied the wreckage. “I’m sure if you sort through the debris, one or two pieces will have scratches on them.”
“That pronouncement went over about as well as an all-vegan buffet at a Cattlemen's Association dinner.”
“It’s our bad luck to have teachers in this world, but since we’re stuck with them, the best we can do is hope to get a brand-new one instead of a mean old fart. New teachers don’t know the rules, so you can get away with things the old-timers would squash you for. That was my theory. So I was feeling pretty excited to start fifth grade, since I was getting a rookie teacher—a guy named Mr. Terupt. Right away, I put him to the test. If the bathroom pass is free, all you have to do is take it and go. This year, the bathrooms were right across the hall. It’s always been an easy way to get out of doing work. I can be really sneaky like that. I take the pass all the time and the teachers never notice. And like I said, Mr. Terupt was a rookie, so I knew he wasn’t going to catch me. Once you’re in the bathroom, it’s mess-around time. All the other teachers on our floor were women, so you didn’t have to worry about them barging in on you. Grab the bars to the stalls and swing. Try to touch your feet to the ceiling. Swing hard. If someone’s in the stall, it’s really funny to swing and kick his door in, especially if he’s a younger kid. If you scare him bad enough, he might pee on himself a little. That’s funny. Or if your buddy’s using the urinal, you can push him from behind and flush it at the same time. Then he might get a little wet. That’s pretty funny, too. Some kids like to plug the toilets with big wads of toilet paper, but I don’t suggest you try doing that. You can get in big trouble. My older brother told me his friend got caught and he had to scrub the toilets with a toothbrush. He said the principal made him brush his teeth with that toothbrush afterward, too. Mrs. Williams is pretty tough, but I don’t think she’d give out that kind of punishment. I don’t want to find out, either. When I came back into the classroom after my fourth or fifth trip, Mr. Terupt looked at me and said, “Boy, Peter, I’m gonna have to call you Mr. Peebody, or better yet, Peter the Pee-er. You do more peein’ than a dog walking by a mile of fire hydrants.”
“Her mind can’t go to the dark places mine does.”
“Maurice Nicoll says all history is a living today. We are not enjoying one spark of life in a huge, dead waste. We are, instead, existing at one point “in a vast process of the living who still think and feel but are invisible to us.”
“I felt a wetness in my eyes and I blinked confused from the strange sensation. A small trickle of water ran down my cheek. I stared into the darkness as I held Pagan in my arms in amazement. Death had just shed a tear.”
“You know, there are good reasons to learn how to read. Poetry isn't one of them. I mean, so what if two roads go two ways in a wood? So what? Who cares if it made all that big a difference? What difference? And why should I have to guess what the difference is? Isn't that what he's supposed to say?
Why can't poets just say what they want to say and then shut up?”
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