Glass in the cat
I'm at the downtown beach with Nathalie and Astara.
We're sitting on 3 cement stairs that lead down to the beach area.
I'm petting a cat.
A waitress in a white uniform walks past carrying a small TV on a tray.
A Vietnam Vet in uniform drops a glass windowpane or windshield on the cat.
I realize that the cat is my old cat; Anna,
and in the same second the man changes into a different man.
I realize that I can't see properly because something is wrong with my glasses.
I take them off and find that there's a square hole in the right lens,
and the left lens is made of some watery substance.
The new man is thinnish, balding, wearing glasses, and extremely unpleasant and mean.
His face is a mottled red and he's wearing jeans that are much too large,
so his ass hangs out of them.
I turn to the cat (Anna) and begin carefully removing the broken glass from her skin.
The glass shards have darkened and are stuck into the skin across her back
I lay the pieces on the cement until I have remover them all.
I lean against the railing with Anna still in my lap,
and feel tears running down my face as I pet her.
Someone tells me that this same man had caused a car accident earlier in the day
and managed to sue the other driver for $600,000.
I'm wondering if my parent's insurance will cover whatever happened to my glasses.
A famous person appears at the top of the stairs.
He's a large man with a long goatee,
dressed in shiny clothing and a long coat that reaches the ground.
He's helpful and kind.
My mother has invited him over for snacks, so we go to my parent's house to talk and eat.
Etchings
I'm looking at a book created by the man who draws 'Herman' cartoons.
It's a picture book anthology of stories about Adam and Eve.
Some of the illustrations have been etched onto thin pages made of tin.
I'm sitting in the V.S.T lounge.
I find a picture of a tiny purple car,
and another of Scott doing a drag queen strip tease in a mirror.
The book weighs a great deal, so I set it on the table in front of me.
Rapist
Katrina is a very young girl and has been raped by a man who works at a carnival.
The man runs a ride that's a cross between a merry-go-round and a ferris wheel.
(you sit on painted horses rather than the usual ferris wheel seats)
It's very tall and looks dangerous.
Katrina is the second girl the man has raped,
and there's a good chance there have been other victims that never told anyone.
Since she didn't come forward right away, there wasn't any proof that the man did it.
He's a squat, dirty, cocky little bastard
that has grease stains on his clothes and smells of cigars.
It's assumed he continued to be a serial rapist until 5 years later
when he is finally arrested and convicted.
The papers have been signed to lock him away,
but it's too late, Katrina is dead.