Leah's First Post!

Hey dudes!

Well, Emily told me to post my short stories on here, and since I always do what Emily tells me to do (who doesn't), I decided to heed her advice.

Sorry if you've already seen/read this story--it's posted on my other blog too.  Just kidding.  Not sorry.  You'll just have to read it again!  Or else.



"'Til The Seagulls Go Home"

“I love seagulls.  They remind me of the ocean”, she said, as we sat on the hard, concrete curb, baking in the ninety-degree sun.

Seagulls called as she lit a cigarette, and offered one to me.  I waved my hand, explaining, “I really shouldn’t”.  I didn’t know why I shouldn’t.  I still had quite a complex involving doing things that my mother would highly disapprove of, whereas Viola didn’t care.

“I’ve got to have a cigarette before I go back home”, she explained, “It’s been three days.  I’m absolutely dying.”  She inhaled, deeply.

“You don’t think your mom knows by this point?”, I asked her.

I wondered how Viola wasn’t sweating like a madwoman.  She was wearing black jeans, on a day that felt as though we were living in middle of the Sahara.  Viola was always wearing black jeans, even in the summer.  I owned a pair like hers, but I never had the gall to wear them in the summer heat.

“I mean, I’m sure she suspects.”  She flicked her ashes onto the ground.  “I don’t know.  I don’t really care.”

A seagull squawked loudly above us. 

“Why do you think they’re here?”, she asked me.

“What?”

“The seagulls.  Why do you think they’re here today, when they could be by the water?  It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe they needed a little time away”, I suggested, “A change of scenery”.

“Yeah, but they belong by the ocean.  Yet you’re always seeing them in parking lots.  Loads of them.  It’s strange.”

I agreed.  It was strange.

I changed the subject.

“So, how’s Ted?”

Ted was her boyfriend of a year and a half.  I had never met him.  He lived in Toronto.

“Annoying”, she laughed.  Then, cautiously, “We might move in together, actually”.

“Whoa.  Really?”  The shock was sincere.

“Yeah.”

She was silent for a minute, while she took a long drag on her rapidly diminishing cigarette.  She uncomfortably shifted her position, placing both legs directly in front of her.

“I don’t know.  My lease is up on my old place, and I don’t really know anybody in the city anymore, besides him.”

She looked at the ground, perhaps ashamed, or perhaps contemplating the many ways this decision could possibly go wrong.  For some reason, I had never really pictured Viola with a serious boyfriend.  I had known her my entire life, and I had never once suspected her of being somebody in love.

“Well, yeah, then it makes sense,” I offered.  I didn’t really know if it made any sense.  I had never actually been somebody in love, either.

“I don’t think we’ll get married or have kids or anything.  I mean, I really don’t think that at all.  I know we’ll break up eventually.” She was laughing as she said the last bit.  I laughed with her.

“But, we’ll just live together—and when it happens, it happens.”

She put out her stub of a cigarette, and walked over to the nearest trash can to dispose of it.  I reached up to feel my cheeks, flushed by the hellish heat.  My legs were falling asleep, so I shifted my position on curb.

Viola sat back down.  She slumped her back, and hanged her arms over her knees.

“Anyway, it’s weird.  I never thought I’d move in with Ted, but the circumstances are just right.”

There was a brief silence as we both watched the cars drive by.  Silences with her were never uncomfortable.  They always seemed, to me, to prove an intimacy that can only come with truly knowing somebody.

“I wonder if I’ll ever find somebody”, I said.  Truthfully, it depressed me that she had found the something that I am always searching for, and so easily.

“I didn’t know it would happen with Ted.  I mean, it just happened.  I didn’t have to try.”

“Yeah, but with me, I’m feel like I’m always trying.  Nothing ever works out.” I tried not to sound too whiney.  I despise petulance, but it seems to be my default when it comes to discussing matters such as love.

“I had this dream the other night,” I said “where I met the man of, well, my dreams.   He, of course, led me on like crazy.  I was convinced I would be happy forever.  But he ended up running away with another woman."

I shook my head, as if it were all a joke.

"It was this girl I went to school with, I think.”

I paused for a second, and suddenly an idea dawned on me.

“I used to fall back on my Dreamworld, but now even my Dreamworld is fucked up.”

Viola let out a loud, sadistic laugh.  I hadn’t noticed, but she had lit another cigarette.  She offered me one, again.  Although I wanted one, I refused the offer, once more.  I wasn’t laughing.

“Well, it’s not like my life is perfect”, Viola reasoned, “I have no idea what I’m going to do beyond tomorrow, basically.”

Viola was always saying things like that to make me feel better.  We had always been on the same level, as far as misery goes.  There had been many times when I secretly hoped that neither of us would ever be content; I think she felt the same way.

“You just need to get out of this city,” she continued, “You just need to find a place where you fit in.  That’s all that happened to me.  I mean, I got a job and I met people I liked and that’s how I met Ted and—“

 She trailed off, clearly distracted by something extraordinary. 

After a few seconds of silent suspense, I asked, “What?”

“The seagulls are gone.”  She stood up and surveyed the parking lot.   She raised her hand to her forehead, using it as a shield from the sun.

I got up and stood next to her, and did the same.

“Strange”, I said.  Viola nodded. 

We both stood together in the middle of the blacktop.  Viola, in all black, with her cigarette in hand—its smoke accompanying the heat waves, rising into the air.  Me, in my summer dress, feet crossed, one hand on my hip; the other hand noticeably devoid of any cigarette.  The air felt stale and empty, now—filled only by the sounds of cars whizzing by. 

“Huh.  I guess they’ve gone back home,” she sighed.