An excerpt from a new story i am working on, part of The Silent River:
Karen spent three months inside the apartment. The last half of the fall and into the early part of the winter, near November. She knew there would have to be a homecoming for the feast of fall. It would not be something that would come easily. Getting on a plane and leaving the open sky for her hill tree lined home. The only way she knew of the weather outside for these months was leaving every few days to buy cigarettes at the convenience store not a minute from her apartment. She could see through the window that the sky was changing from gold to white over the weeks. In these months she became intimate with the television. They had a schedule like lovers who meet every thursday in a Motel 6 or like a married couple sits down to eat at 7:30 pm and on friday it’s taco night. She knew when the programs that she enjoyed were on. she sat very close to the set, as if it was warming her, like a fireplace or a wood stove in an old home. The central source of warmth and hypnotizing flames now commercials and channels. It was the best pain killer she knew of. The best mind number out there.
*****
She watched talk shows where hosts tried to fix problems with a panel and forced dialog. A woman crying over a paternity test because she still didn’t know the father. Karen shook her head at these. Maybe they shouldn’t have banged, like 50, dudes. Another host putting themselves in a fatsuit or making themselves ugly to see how “it really was”. An offshoot of the talk show was the court show. She loved these and felt as if she could win any small claims court case she would ever have to be a part of. She liked it when the judges reprimanded the idiot people who would give back lip or were trying to interrupt.
