tales from an ordinary world

2002-06-15

I walked to Elsternwick, in the dark, and all of this was true. I walked past a few other people, each one walking alone, but each one buried in a phone conversation while they walked. Just after that, I heard a phone ringing from the local garage across the street, coming from inside the workshop. This wasn't a new-fangled bleepy phone ring, but a full-bodied bell sound. When I reached the lights a hundred metres on, a woman stood in the middle of the footpath, bags on either side, making a phone call. Her face was mere seconds away from bursting into tears.

Earlier in the day, I mused that life is too short to re-read books, but when I stood at my bookshelf trying to pick a book to take with me this evening, I eschewed all of my unread books in favour of an old favourite - a collection of short stories by Raymond Carver. My life seems to be one of inward contrariness.