Spare Parts
"Waste not, want not." [FLICK!] "[-'told me to be careful so the people who take the recycling out of the bags don't cut their hands on them,' the actress on the talk show had said, 'and it just hit me right then - how many of us even think of the...
Set In Stone
* * * * * * "What does she do, exactly?" Fran's best friend's story had been about a serial killer. "She never even touches them," the jackal's best friend had started. "She just talks to them. She learns everything about their lives, their...
And I Must Scream
"You go to hell for the company, and to heaven for the peace and quiet." "Sometimes it's more gradual than people talk about," Fran's roommate had tried to explain. "Like, on TV you'll see oh, this person's reacting to this specific crisis, she's...
Autopilot
'If work is so good for you, why don't the rich do more of it?' "Who said that?" "Some famous wolf writer I think," Fran's best friend had replied. "The same one who wrote AWOO." "I think that's AROO in fact," the jackal's roommate had chimed...
The Hand You're Dealt
"Forgetting someone is killing them twice." Fran had kept having a harder and harder time dealing with her best friend's coma alone, while her roommate had kept having a harder and harder time dealing with living in a graveyard full of dead...
The Hand That Feeds You
"Darling when the morning comes And I see the morning sun I wanna be the one with you..." (Grover Washington Jr, Just The Two Of Us) "Do you think..." It'd been hard for them to talk about, but they hadn't had anyone else to talk to. "Do you...
The Spirit of the Law
"We are spirits in a material world." (The Police, Ghost In The Machine) "She was hooked up to one of those machines, you know?" Fran had nodded. "Hardest thing I ever had to do," her best friend had shaken her head. "Well, they're battle...
Dead To Me
"Got a little soul The world is a cold, cold place to be Want a little warmth But who's going to save a little warmth for me...?" (Vampire Weekend, Unbelievers) "Hey, Fran...?" Fran's best friend's voice had sounded shaky on the other end of the...
The Mind Killer
"Even nothing is something." (Jerry Seinfeld) [FLICK!] ['-ment, 'void,' while it's sometimes compared with the Greeks' 'aether,' is also quite distinct from it in its own way. It connects with the importance of space, silence, everything that...
Tears In Rain
'If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it'll spend its whole life believing it's stupid.' (Albert Einstein) "Ugh, really?" It'd already taken Fran half an hour to get to the bridge. It'd been raining that day, fittingly, she...
Scorched Earth
"À la claire fontaine m'en allai promener (I went for a walk to the clear blue fountain today) J'ai trouvé l'eau si belle que je m'y suis baignée (The water was so pretty I had to take a dip) Tu as le coeur à rire, moi, je l'ai à pleurer (Your heart...
Out Of Mind
"Where is my mind? Way out in the water See it swimmin'..." (The Pixies, Where Is My Mind?) It'd been one of those mornings on which Fran just hadn't felt like getting up at all. What good could come from it? She hadn't been able to picture...