James Crumley wrote a twisted short story on how one man attempted to educate a woman to create a sophisticated picture of his ideal couple life. The night did not end as planned, in the manner that he expected it to be at least.
Crumley wrote crime stories in a mood that smacks you right in front of the scene, the lone witness to the horrific, abhorrent, inconceivable incidents that might leave you sleepless for many nights to come.
MIGHT being the operative word there.
My teacher Barb issued a trigger warning in last Tuesday’s class to NOT read Goodbye Cruel World before going to bed to avoid nightmares.
So… I slept at 8:00 p.m. and woke up at 11:00 p.m. to read it while the everyone in the house, except me, was already asleep. I read it in the living room, which was colder than the bedroom. I turned on the ceiling fan and had only one light on at the corner where my husband does some online work. I was all about setting an eerie mood or at least a semblance of it.
You can finish the story in less than 10 minutes but I took my time and savored each word the way my son held on to the first lollipop he tasted last Halloween. It took me 30 minutes to read and reread the entire story and then another 20 minutes to fix myself lemon-ginger tea and digest what I just read.
I will never get bored in the state my mind is speeding on the mental highway. I’m waiting for some traffic police to blow his horn and order me to stop and issue some mental traffic violation ticket because I’m thinking way too much.
It was 1:00 a.m. by the time I had my brain cells sorted out just in time when I remembered about the Pride and Prejudice book I ordered from an e-bay seller last week. Ha! It should be in the mailbox today (Friday) when the sun rises in the east. It should be in the mailbox today (Friday) before the sun sets in the west.
Ask me how much I paid for the book?
Come on… ask me… don’t be shy…
Only $2.94, free shipping, and it’s new!
Today – yes, Friday – Jeff gave me a couple of mails and two packages and one of them contained the book!
It’s a real book!
I stared at it for a minute until Jeff called my name (twice!) and told me that I am in trance again and have drifted to book heaven.
Well, I did.
I was staring at a piece of literature, written by Jane Austen, that chartered the way I viewed my life as a woman leaving a Catholic high school in 2003 and getting ready to walk the hallways of what most people consider as the Philippines’ radical university, where some of my Catholic education may be questioned and debated much to the horror of my grandmother and the constant reminder from my mother not to get pregnant or joined organizations that involve hazing and frat wars.
I’m feeling good about this purchase.
It’s a Friday night and I’m holed up in the bathroom. Door is locked and Jeff is watching the twins and the baby. I have an hour to myself. I’ll start rereading this classic.
Let’s see if anything changed.
