Shit Happens Day and Night
Text ©by Marek Gajdziński
Pics by Copilot
“Listen to this,” she says, reading from the magazine she has been reading for the last hour or so. “Can Never go hand in hand with Always? Never, says Never. Always, says Always.”
She looks at him. He shows no interest. Instead, he continues reading a newspaper he has been reading for the last hour or so.
“Have you heard me?”
“Yes, I’ve heard you. What about it?”
“This was what they call flash literature or something, a short story called ‘Never Says Never, Always Says Always’.”
“Indeed, a very short one.”
“But don’t you think this funny?”
“I may think it stupid, if you really insist on my opinion.”
“Well then, hear this. The story was submitted to the editor of a certain literary magazine by a writer from Argentina. On the same day the editor received a very similar contribution from another writer from Iceland. This other story is tilted ‘Never Says Always, Always Says Never’ and reads: Can Never go hand in hand with Always? Never, says Always. Always, says Never.”
She looks at him. Again, he shows no interest.
“Have you heard me?”
“Yes, I’ve heard you.”
“And what do you say to this? Don’t you think this is, you know…”
“That’s the end?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then,” he stops reading what he has been reading and looks up at her, “I say there’s nothing to it”.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean this shit happens day and night, and will, till hell freezes over”.
He goes back to his newspaper. She looks at him as if she wanted to say something but finally decides otherwise and focuses on her magazine. They are both reading for some time. The silence grows.
Then he puts down the newspaper, gets up and leaves the room, heading for a bathroom or kitchen, who knows. While passing through the corridor, he suddenly freezes in an awkward position. He utters some hardly distinguishable sounds that may form a female name, or a part of it, “Barb”, or something. The woman hears the call and answers while reading on:
“Yes, David?”
He collapses to the floor. There he rests supine, undisturbed, unable and unwilling to produce any more sounds, his chest motionless for the first time in his life.
