Michael’s Reviews > Cruising Paradise > Status Update

“I was there when they opened his mouth and removed the dentures. They set his teeth on a stainless-steel table and attached a yellow tag with wire to them. The tag had numbers written in black. The numbers were the date and time of his death. They attached another tag, with the same numbers, to the big toe of his right foot.”

“When I got there the window was wide open and the bay breeze was blowing the pages of the ‘Chronicle’ at the foot of her bed. I couldn’t see her in there, but I could hear her flat voice inviting me to climb on through. It was her plain, straightforward voice, with no hint of false seduction or double-dealing. Midwestern. I’d never climbed through a sidewalk window before. It felt slightly illegal.”

“But you I have no distance from. Every move you make feels like I’m traveling in your skin; every glance you take out the window, as though you were completely alone and dreaming in some other time. It does no good to wave my arms. Now everything’s reversed.”

“This was in the days when you could still mail-order wild baby animals from ads in the back of hunting and fishing magazines, like ‘Field and Stream.’ You just sent away for them with your check or money order, and a month or so later they’d arrive, snarling and spitting in a wooden crate, down at the train depot.”