From STRANGE MERCIES It’s terrible the way that prayer is answered. —Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter THE MORE MAYHEW pretended to pray, the more he began to doubt the project of documentation, and yet the spectacle of what he’d already videotaped seemed fully real only now, the images wavering with unstable pixilation . . .
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From Tomorrow We Never Did Talk About It: When we left, at the end of the day, the tank was still parked in front of the school. The bus maneuvered through the main gate much more slowly than usual, kind of cautiously, maybe so all of us school kids would be able to . . .
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From EMERGENCY EXIT: Months 5–19 The Stewardess was out of control. She was told when to speak, what to say, what to wear, when to change it, how to stand, where to sit, and how to serve. But she decided whom to service. And she decided how. Four passengers: two men, two women. . . .
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From Much Ado About Everything: CLEMENT MOTHERS, Sweet Fathers: the Neanderthals laid their dead in graves and covered them with flowers. This is certain, in all the ways that we can approve certainty. It is also possible to think that they sang, wordlessly, and danced, strangely, while they wept. They were, it continues . . .
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From “The Bombay Liaison (is Grateful)”: “They all came to India looking for something. For spirituality. For yoga and fasting. To feed their hunger and thirst with spice and other gastronomic items. Some came for business, cheap shopping, a ten-day wedding. Others came to tick off an item on their bucket list, . . .
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