Pages

Welcome Eager Readers! (And Writers)

Thanks for stopping by. Please read our "About" page for some more information and please look over our submission guidelines that are on the right before submitting.

Enjoy, and Viva La Toucan

Laura, Toucan Editrice

Thursday, July 19, 2012

What Is the Existential Difference Between a Margarita and a Martini?, J. J. Steinfeld

    Sitting at a crowded bar, feeling lonely and unloved, you have a sudden awareness, not that you wanted one, not after three drinks, margaritas or martinis. You are drunk with imprecision yet this sudden awareness that something you believed all your life is a lie or worse, and hot on the heels of this bursting awareness comes a second sudden awareness that something you disbelieved all your life is a truth or moremore than a truth, worse than a lie. You have a fourth drink and admit you dont know the difference between a margarita and a martini to the supernaturally beautiful stranger sitting next to you at the bar, and when she smiles in bewilderment, you reveal that you had a dream less than a week ago that you were on Jeopardy!, the clamorous, stressful Final Jeopardy! clue “MARGARITAS AND MARTINIS” and youre paralyzed with silence, silence as embarrassing as omniscience, awaking to the morning news and you were the first item, a report of your arrest in the middle of the night for the theft of a hundred-thousand items from a thousand museums and galleries during a hundred nights of thievery, ten lifetimes of criminality, one condemnation by the ineffable, that cant be, that simply cant be, you screamed at the clock radio, a gift from a thief who stole it from a saint or maybe it is the other way around, you dont know, not after four margaritas or martinis, in a dream or otherwise, but the night is young and you feel your luck about to change. The supernally beautiful stranger has stolen your heart and you dont want it back.

1 comment:

  1. I really like your writing style, almost a stream of consciousness rant, which nicely conveys the distractedness of the subject of the story. I must confess, at the same time, that I had some trouble understanding the word structure of some of the sentences, couldn't really figure out what you were trying to say.
    I think that if you cleaned up the ambiguity of some of the language this piece would really shine. Great job.

    ReplyDelete