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Drabble Corner

Michelle Swisz

For May's Drabble, I'm happy to present "A Decision," by Tom Spencer, exploring the theme of Exploration. When sending in your comments and Dribbles on this, keep in mind that the guidelines are continually being refined to achieve an increasingly better column. So, for the latest, take another look at them just before you write what you send in. This month's Dribble is at the other end of the column, following a reprint of Jim Hatfield's "Splashed," the Drabble of last month, which elicited it.

May's Drabble, on Exploration

A Decision by Tom Spencer The old man sat in the fog-shrouded café. His coffee was cold. Subconsciously, he was tearing a napkin to shreds. His thoughts ran to the family business. His brother had done everything right. For his reward, his father had him killed. His cousin, always at odds with his father, was given his own territory, his heating bills paid. For years the old man avoided a decision, used the world of politics to avoid joining the family business. Politics made a social statement most could not deny. And now with campaign finance reform, he is forced to choose a new profession.

Metaphor. Symbolism. Real life. Is there really such a thing as just metaphorical truth, or are the things, the events, that we understand as being "just" metaphorical actually a higher level of expression by the Universe of the exact same things we see on "this" level? Right now, in the midst of an (amiable) divorce, I am in the process of moving out of our house, and hence cleaning it in places I didn't know existed before, such as previously invisible spaces between major appliances.

A few minutes ago, I was standing in our kitchen, looking in the wastebasket, and in it there was a pretty big clump of something, I guess dust (or that's what seemed to be holding together whatever it was.) Think Gilda Radner taking a look at some unknown substance she's found somewhere in the house, if you happen to be old enough to remember her on Saturday Night Live in the 70's.

Like Gilda, I'm mentally dissecting this dust clump, asking , "What the heck is this?" Or, is it that I am really (and then, in what sense are the questions more real than the dust or whatever it is that seems to both precipitate and illustrate them?) dissecting what our relationship is, and was; what is left of it, what has it become? When I see dust, in what actual sense am I seeing the marriage--the dust that it had collected, the cleaning that has changed that--or the stuff that it was, and the dust that is left of the marriage aspect of the relationship? What is the connection between the real and how we see it, between the object that we perceive and/or create, and the perception of it? Perhaps a philosopher or two out there will have some input on this. June's theme is already set for "It Came to Life," and, by the powers vested in me as editor of Drabbles, the theme for July will now be--Metaphor.

Another new tradition: Alison had an idea for Double Drabbles; exactly, as you'd expect, 200 words. Perhaps addressing the theme of Metaphor would be a good time to introduce the Double Drabble, so feel free to send in either a single or a double on Metaphor.

And here is Jim Hatfield's "Splashed," again, followed by the Dribble that elicited it.

Splashed by Jim Hatfield The first sign they'd been hit was a thump behind the cockpit. The aircraft lurched as if it had been T-boned at a bad intersection. Acrid smoke swirled through the compartment. His earphones buzzed. "We just bought it, Jacko. Eject, eject!" Jack pulled the firing handles and the canopy whipped away like a candy wrapper in the wind. Then his seat seemed to explode, carrying him straight up into the sun. Finally, his chute popped and he found himself drifting lazily toward the Gulf. His knee throbbed. His heart pounded. "Jesus, I'm alive," he thought. Then he hit the water. "Hope there aren't any sharks out there." - Kate Staron

Keep the input coming, everyone! Until next month,

Michelle

Email me your drabbles at drabble@wvu.org.