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Drabble Corner

Michelle Swisz

Our Drabble for this month, on the theme of something in our lives that is physically temporary but necessary, is Fiction Work, by Anonymous.

Fiction Work

My heart is entangled, still, in his. My breath catches when I hear in his voice a certain uncertainty. He's close, just at the other end of an electronic tether, yet it's been years since that voice, in person, has addressed me, engaged me. His eyes now tell me he wants something of what we had—his words equivocate. I turn, he pulls me back, only to say he didn't mean it. He saved my heart, and holds it now, now that it is not the time for that. I turn again, to someone else, and now there are two.

Hurricane Katrina has brought up some lingering issues for many of us, and definitely for me, these past couple of months. What I keep thinking about most is one of the most common questions asked: How could it have been impossible to get food and water to thousands of people dehydrating, some dying, in the baking sun for days and days, while journalists documented the whole episode?

It is incredibly uncomfortable not to know something of such great emotional and bodily importance. And the question about how this could have happened brings up the question of how other things, in our personal lives, could have happened. How could the paramedics have driven around for fifteen minutes before getting to my mother, when the address was clearly marked? How could the friend who I lean on for all kinds of support and wisdom, have allowed a medical condition to go on without treatment until it now perhaps irreversibly threatens her life? How could I have not planned for this next financial stage in my life?

What do we do when we don't know—do we cry foul, investigate any errors that might have been made, make a monetary contribution, volunteer, write a poem, put together a benefit concert? What do you imagine the best response to be? Put it in a Drabble. The guidelines, summarized, are: 100 words exactly, excluding title, and submitted to drabble@wvu.org within 10 days of this ezine being sent out. So the theme is, what do we do when we don't know? See you next time.

About the Author
Hello, and welcome to Drabbles. I'm Michelle, your Drabbles editor. I live south of San Francisco, with four spoiled cats, near the sea where I love to walk every day. I've tutored English in workshops, classrooms, and individually at San Jose State University, and have worked on the Fiction Panel here at Writers' Village. Comments and questions are always welcome!