{"id":8171,"date":"2011-05-08T12:45:26","date_gmt":"2011-05-08T16:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=8171"},"modified":"2011-05-08T12:47:54","modified_gmt":"2011-05-08T16:47:54","slug":"real-life-dialogue-the-wind-beneath-my-wings-the-garage-sale-beneath-my-feet-edition-a-fragment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/real-life-dialogue-the-wind-beneath-my-wings-the-garage-sale-beneath-my-feet-edition-a-fragment\/","title":{"rendered":"Real-Life Dialogue (The Wind Beneath My Wings, the Garage Sale Beneath My Feet Edition): A Fragment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"[The scene: a home in a suburban development in North Florida, USA. At a computer upstairs, He stares at a blank screen which represents, in fond theory and — for the moment — ebbing hope, a page in a novel-to-be. He wears headphones, volume turned up louder than normal to mask the <\/em>downstairs <\/em>haggling, laughter, and scrapes of wooden furniture on concrete floor.]<\/em><\/p>\n

She calls His name, loudly, from the foot of the stairs.<\/em><\/p>\n

He:<\/strong> WHAT?!?<\/p>\n

She:<\/strong> Are you selling these shoes?<\/p>\n

He:<\/strong> [pause]<\/em> “Shoes”?<\/p>\n

She:<\/strong> Shoes! These shoes! Are you selling them?<\/p>\n

He:<\/strong> [confused]<\/em> I don’t know wh—<\/p>\n

She:<\/strong> Shoes<\/em>. Brown. Made by Dexter. Lace-up shoes<\/em>.<\/p>\n

His eyes go out of focus. He recalls the shoes in question: He had bought them for Their honeymoon, in the far north, because they’d seemed rugged and tundra-worthy. The last time He’d worn them had been when He last did anything resembling yard work, when Tyrannosaurs ruled the cul-de-sacs and saber-toothed cats, the rooftops. Over the years, the shoes had become crusted with (on the outside) dried mud, grass clippings, fertilizer, accumulated grime, the dust of a nearby bursting asteroid, and (on the inside) a salty rime of ancient perspiration. <\/em>Those shoes. Someone wants to freaking <\/em>buy—?<\/em><\/p>\n

She:<\/strong> [impatient]<\/em> Never mind! If you can’t remember them then I’m selling them!<\/p>\n

<\/strong>The blank screen now mocking Him, He shakes his head but cannot reply.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[The scene: a home in a suburban development in North Florida, USA. At a computer upstairs, He stares at a blank screen which represents, in fond theory and — for the moment — ebbing hope, a page in a novel-to-be. He wears headphones, volume turned up louder than normal to mask the downstairs haggling, laughter, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[183,16,1235],"tags":[933,2359],"class_list":{"0":"post-8171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-everyday-life","7":"category-themissus","8":"category-real-life-dialogue-runningaftermyhat","9":"tag-real-life-dialogue","10":"tag-garage-sales","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-27N","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8172,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8171\/revisions\/8172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}