By S. T. Broeckx
If you live long enough your present will become your past.
I am starting to cut a fifty-pound bag of onions.
Prep cooking in a ski lodge atop a mountain with a recovering heroine addict, Jim. The head prep cook is a coke head who has already disappeared once for several days.
John Prine sings, “There is a hole in Daddy’s arm where all the money goes.”
Jim smiles, remembering the smooth appeal of heroin running through his veins.
“Pally!” My boss bellows. “Get that tray of onions ready. They need them upstairs…now!”
Hours pass into the future; nothing changes.
“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” This story very definitely makes this point.
That John Prine lyric is powerful. Is the first line (italicized) also his? I love your second sentence– somehow it really brings me right in, makes me want to know who you are and why you’re cutting onions. Plus the unspoken–how onions make you cry.
I wonder what would happen if the first italicized line were moved to the end–not only to give the first sentence some breathing room, but also because it might (might! I’m not sure of course) pack more of a punch.
Interesting character portrait. Thanks.
Don’t stop to count the years.
You built fascinating characters in very few words and I want to find out more about them. Great writing