
Fruit basket and Mary
"It’s a curious fact of our present circumstances that the most obvious sign of progress in flooded out neighborhoods is piles of trash..."As our neighborhood slowly scrabbles its way up through the middling percentages of occupancy, heaps still burst forth across front yards and sidewalks and onto streets, blooming like vile flowers* of slow-going recovery:
Voice from the stall: "Hello?"Cellphones are confusing.**
Me: Um.*
Voice from the stall: "Hello?"
Me: Um.
Voice from the stall: "Hey, Tom, this is..."
"A baby."Hmm, three weeks is kind of short notice. Anybody know a good adoption agency?
"A baby doll?"
"No, a real baby... that eats and cries and sleeps."
"You want a baby sister?"
"No, my baby. All my own, not my family's."