short story
Uploaded by joeydaprof on Jun 12, 2006
This table is solid. The wood will never falter. The grain is unique but constant, woven from the seed it originally was. Sometimes I lie on the table and rub my hands over the contrasts. The shiny smoothness of the varnish then the natural dents and bumps of time.
I make sure I’m all alone when this happens. Just me and my table. It will always hold me, I can be sure of that.
Patches, gum, inhaler, injection, cold turkey (dead turkey), get caught, go crazy, be honest.
I’d been out of home for nearly a year and mum still didn’t know I smoked. It was kinda pathetic really; I was twenty years old. I should’ve just been able to waltz in there and light up right before her eyes, fearless of the consequences. But no, she still had that hold on me; even when I lived six hundred and fifty kilometres away from her.
I smoked for two years under her roof. Every night I couldn’t hold out any longer, I’d wait in the shadows of the lounge room until I could hear the fearsome roar of my parents’ snores. Then I’d slink across the floorboards, taking care not to step on the weaker parts that creaked. I’d only open the screen door a tiny bit, only enough for me to squeeze through, and then I’d softly pull it ajar to rest there until I came back.
Dad caught me out there only once. I convinced him that I was experimenting with my religion and I’d read somewhere about a way of worshipping the moon that gave you metaphysical powers. I was amazed at how I’d pulled such a story so far out of left field whilst all the time worrying that the cigarette I threw into the garden would label me a pyromaniac and get me sent to one of those psychiatric hospital high schools. It didn’t. Dad just smiled, wished me luck and went back to bed.
She’s so beautiful, so so beautiful. And happy! She loves me so much and rings every week to see how I’m going. She’ll be big one day. I know it. A doctor or a lawyer, a famous actress gracing the stage with her presence. Yes! I can just see it now. It’s the opening night of the new mysterious big show on Broadway. She walks out behind the curtain, her approaching footsteps masked by...