Short by Joseph Musso
Joseph Musso lives a transitory life. His next excursion will be a return to the west coast, where the ghosts of good times have been heard of late calling his name in the sweet troubled baritone of Lady Day herself. Make him super happy and buy his newest books, The Cats Were Skinny But Cool About It and Three Stories (of sex and madness) from Amazon. Check out his other books: I Was Never Cool, Apartment Building (Available at SPD Books.com), and his current favorite Red Somehow (a premonition). Make him even happier and drop him a line at AGFOTR57@aol.com!
HAT A wood pile. In a pile of wood find church bell, horse head, cave entrance. The church bell chimes. The horse head whinnies. These are the sounds issued to them. The man found the horse head in a wood pile, in a pile of wood. Along with a church bell. A cave entrance. His face was dirty. His hands were dirty. His feet were dirty. The church bell its smudges. The smudges told stories, told Histories. The past. The man claws at secret languages in the scratches. In the grooves. The man will write his own story. Cave drawings. The man will depict the people daily. Hunt. Fish. Their babies. How they die. In the cave a wood pile. As an idea, fire is located. Invented. Look a fire. The man who found fire. His face is dirty. His hands. His feet. Sleep. The man slept in the cave. He was lost. He was cold. He found wood, twigs, brush. He made a pile. He made a fire. Look a fire. He slept by the fire. All night he felt the heat of the fire on his dirty arms and on his dirty face. He would burn clean. He dreamed he was sleeping inside a large vat of boiling water. He dreamed he could be clean. He said to himself All dreams are lies come morning. - The man has a sister. This woman, this sister, the man’s sister. In her house the man sits at a table. There is food on the table. There is a second man, with a beard. And lookalikes at the table. The lookalikes look like the man’s sister and the second man but smaller, still forming. There is a male lookalike. There is a female lookalike. The lookalikes also look like each other. Twins are notorious witches and demons and should be burned right out of the womb. Only black magic could conjure up such an unholy set of creatures. The lookalikes were not burned right out of the womb. They were coddled and swaddled. They were each given a teat. They were awarded all the fresh mother’s milk they could drink. They grew strong and normal. They had two of these: eyes, ears, hands, feet, arms, legs, kidneys. And one each of these: nose, mouth, tongue, heart, liver, brain. They had sexual organs. They could re-produce. All of these mechanisms worked without need of repair. - In the cave the man died. In the cave the man lived. The man built a fire. He killed a rabbit. He found water. He learned medicine. Cured infection with berries smeared. Made ointment from crushed beetles and bat feces. - At the man’s sister’s table the man drank a glass of water. He had not died in the cave. The second man asked questions. The questions asked were Why did you live in a cave for a year? Why did you go to that cave to die? Why did you leave that cave? Why are you still in that cave? The man answered the second man’s questions. The second man nodded at each answer. The second man was satisfied with the answers given. The man was satisfied with the answers he gave. The man’s sister pulled a rabbit out of a hat. She pulled two rabbits. Twelve years ago the man’s sister delivered a magic trick: two babies at once. The man’s sister’s womb from now on will be called a Hat. The man’s sister’s hat was burning up with heat. Bubbling with new life. She made an announcement. Everyone was happy. No one was happy. Rabbit stew. Her bubbling cauldron. - The man in the cave died in the cave. The man in the cave lived in the cave. The man in the cave did something with sticks in the cave. The man in the cave made a pile. The man in the cave made himself a pile. Made himself into a pile. He piled himself up. The man went outside the cave, just a few steps. To find the source of heat. To find the source of light. The sun is a wheel in the sky. The man piled himself up, on top and on top and on top of himself. But still could not reach high enough to reach the sun. To spin the wheel. To steer the world. But the wheel spun anyway. The wheel did not spin. All the way around the wheel spun. The sun is overweight. How much longer can it hold itself up there? Someone spoke. Someone said That coat. You are not after all. Thinly disguised as— Someone invented the wheel. Someone invented the sun. No one invented the sun. The sun was seen one day. One day the sun was just seen. When it disappeared at the end of the day the man who was the first to see the sun thought it was gone forever. The next morning, astonished, the man leaped with joy. He howled at the marvelous return of that marvelous giver of heat and light. The sun can give birth. The sun cannot give birth. Can the sun give birth? Is the sun overweight? Or is the sun with child? Baby suns, cradle, rock, coo & sing. Sing to the sun. Coddle. Swaddle. A wheel is made. A baby is invented. Two babies. Rabbit stew. Served from a hat. A hat, gurgling. A womb, bubbling. Rabbit stew. Stir the emotions. Season to taste. Two of everything. Lots of ones.