(Content warning for ominous hints at domestic violence.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n
(Written 7 May 1995; typed up 26 September 1995.)
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\u201cLouise? Hello? Are you here?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
No answer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Sam hesitated in the half-open doorway. \u201cLouise?\u201d Then, louder, \u201cAnyone home?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Still no answer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Sam gingerly pushed through the door and into Louise\u2019s apartment. He recognized the photo of her parents on her desk. The matching photo of Sam\u2019s parents was still on the mantle in their house, next to a bare spot.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Sam swallowed hard and looked away. He placed the shoebox he\u2019d been carrying on the tiny kitchenette table, and turned to leave. Then he stopped and picked up the box again. In five steps he crossed the living room to the bedroom door and opened it. \u201cLouise?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The bedroom was a mess\u2014half of Louise\u2019s clothes were still in boxes, the other half were strewn around the floor. The bed was rumpled, unmade.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
A chirp from behind one of the boxes made Sam jump\u2014he caught the box as it started to slip from his fingers.<\/p>
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\u201cOh, hello Daffodil,\u201d he said to the bird in the cage on the floor. \u201cYou scared me.\u201d He squatted to look into the cage. \u201cHow you doing? Got enough food and water?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Daffodil cheeped and cocked her head to one side.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cWish you could tell me how Louise is,\u201d Sam said. He sat on the floor, his back against a cardboard box, and placed the shoebox next to him. He poked a finger through the cage bars.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Daffodil moved closer to nibble on his finger.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cOr where she is,\u201d Sam added. And then, \u201cShe left some stuff back at the house. I<\/em> sure don\u2019t want it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n Reclaiming his finger, he lifted the lid off the shoebox. A gleaming pearl-handled pistol nestled in tissue paper inside it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n \u201cI miss her, Daffy,\u201d he said. \u201cI wish... I wish I could tell her that.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n The bird chirped sympathetically and nibbled a sunflower seed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n \u201cDoes she miss me, too?\u201d Sam laughed wryly. \u201cDoes she tell you about it? She sure doesn\u2019t tell me.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n He looked at the pistol, finally lifted it from the box.<\/p>\r\n\r\n \u201cKapow,\u201d he said. He raised the gun, sighted along it at the mirror by the bed. \u201cKapow.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n Daffodil chirped again.<\/p>\r\n\r\n \u201cYou poor bird,\u201d said Sam. \u201cPoor, cheerful, dumb bird. Your whole life is being rearranged and you don\u2019t care. You don\u2019t even know it. As long as the seeds keep coming, you don\u2019t care what else happens.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n He lifted the gun again, aimed carefully at the ball of yellow feathers in the cage.<\/p>\r\n\r\n \u201cKapow,\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\r\n\r\n From the living room, Louise called out, \u201cHello? Is someone here?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n This came from an exercise on characters. We picked two characters and a situation out of hats, and wrote for twenty minutes or so. I don\u2019t remember all the details, but one of my given characters was \u201ca parakeet,\u201d and the situation was \u201cHe\u2019s got a gun.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n As with the other exercises I\u2019m publishing here, this isn\u2019t intended to be a complete story and hasn\u2019t been revised at all (even for spelling or grammar) since writing. Though I edited it while I was originally writing it\u2014crossing out phrases, making false starts, and so on.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":19784,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5469","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5469"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20693,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5469\/revisions\/20693"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Notes<\/h2>\r\n\r\n