Chapter 1: America

He wakes up. His cell phone beeps. There is a message. He dials a few numbers and holds the phone up to his ear, he hears an automated voice. He brings the phone down to chest level and looks and the numbers. He touches some of the buttons.

‘You have one new message, press one to-’ The phone makes a sound when he presses the button.

‘Hi-’ He recognizes Emily’s mother’s voice. ‘I know this is kind of difficult to understand right now.’ She is crying, gasping for air every now and then. ‘But last night, after your date. I got a call this morning. It was around five in the morning. It was the police. Emily. At around three. She fell. She was walking back from town and she fell off the bridge. Ohhhh. My baby. She washed up around four. Some jogger found her. Nobody knows what happened. Emily. Emily. Ohhh. Where were you? Nevermind. I know she didn’t want to leave you though, she loved you, you helped her. I know that she had you with her. She-’ His phone goes dead. He throws it across the room.

He chases the cell phone and plugs it into the wall. He walks, with no emotion on his face, towards the television. He imagines Emily breaking up with him. He imagines her on the bridge. under the water, pulling with her hands at the water. The phone rings. He imagines it is Emily, her mother, or the police. He doesn’t recognize the number.

‘Hello?’

‘Hello, sir. Is this the resident of 53 Graves Avenue?’

‘Yes.’

‘Hi, my name is Amanda. I am looking at our records, here. It says that you owe $264.87 for gas heat over the last three months.’

‘Yes.’

‘We can process a check over the phone.’

‘Ummm. No. I think I will have to look at my bank statements and figure out something later.’

‘If it’s a matter of not wanting to give your information out over the phone, I completely understand.’ The tele-debt collector wants some commission.

‘No. It is a matter of not having any checks here.’

‘Oh, well I will give you a confirmation numb-’

He hangs up and throws the phone, it is plugged in, it swings back and hits the wall it is plugged into. He thinks of Emily laughing.
He goes on the computer and buys a plane ticket to Virginia for $250. He leaves tomorrow.

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I pick up a box of bananas, hop out of the truck and walk across the parking lot towards the small market. There are four people working at this market right now. One of the workers is wearing an apron, she talks very quietly as she places various fruits in a basket. I can’t read it without my glasses. It looks like there is the outline of a storefront on the card. The woman turns to me, and I hold up the box of bananas. She nods.

I walk to the back room and place the banana box on the cement. When I try to walk back into the store I hit my shoulder against the doorframe and stumble a little. I shake my head looking back at the door like it was a person that had aggressively bumped shoulders with me in a crowd.

The woman’s hair is a bright white, she looked younger from across the store. She has on tall boots. I hand her the receipt. She signs it. Her face looks busy, this is a new stop for me. I don’t know anyone here. She hands the paper back, I tear off the spoolfeeding edges and hand her the yellow carbon copy. I pocket the pink and white parts of the receipt.

‘Thankso much.’ she says, wiping her hands on her apron. There is a crash in the backroom. She looks in that direction and hurries off. I look around the store as I leave, there is a big convex mirror in one corner, near the ceiling. There are no carts, only baskets. I walk back across the parking lot. I get in the truck and put on my glasses. I check off this location with a pen tied to a clipboard. I toss the clipboard into the passenger seat.