NOVEL ATTEMPTS by ashraya gupta

Most of these are quotes from other people. It seems I spent a lot of that summer just writing down whatever I overheard—on the ferry, the train, even amongst my friends. Some are notes for articles for the Fire Island News. A few attempts at fiction. And some regular journal entries.

“Come back, Communists! All is forgiven!”

“I know those doctors, they write letters all day.”

“I had to go to Long Island for nothing!”

“They drill two holes - with a drill, huh?”

“That ain’t no movie, it happened for real - he thought his boss was messing with his girl, so he made her watch as he cut him up. You know what he did for a living? Guy was a butcher. Yo, he gave my man prime cut.”

“We’re passing a boat called ‘Zee Whiz’”

“Top deck of the ferry to Ocean Beach. The girl across from me is reading a book called The Bitch Posse. She’s got a septum piercing.”

“Are we Plover 2 or Plover 3?” “I think we’re Plover 3.” “Did they say Plover 3?”

“Doesn’t it look like God has his high beams on?”

“Yesterday, I met a man named Miguel. He asked me if I spoke Spanish and wanted to know the time. I said ‘No’ and ‘4:15′. He told me he had a daughter about my age, ‘in Mexico,’ he said. His hands were the same color as mine, but his eyes were light grey and he was wearing a tightly woven straw hat. We were underground, waiting for a train.”

“For the next week, she kept picking at the zits, popping them as she told us about the mountains, how it could be cold and foggy on one side and stifling hot on the other. Redwoods, vineyards, Thursday markets with twenty types of mushrooms—she dug her nails sharply into one pimple and said she loved fresh produce.”

“I was not a boater. My family was not boaters. I like history and my wife dared me.”

“My jawbone’s giving up on me.”

“Once, he was almost charming.”

Also, unrelated, women’s gymnastics qualifications were yesterday. Awesome!

Tags:   Fire Island · LIRR · Remembered · San Francisco · Summer1 Comment