You can’t have expectations for a 2 a.m. pick-up
and so it should’ve seemed entirely natural,
greased Dali moustache, red-leather interior,
the neutral Honda,
low to the curb like an anesthetized drunk in their 20s
on a winter night.
We climbed in the backseat,
the driver’s ensuing monologue making us
travelling disciples. Secular wine-drunk,
looking for a good story or something to believe in.
Our fault for asking, “How are you?”
The bait, his response; “Not good.”
We didn’t even need to provoke, the answers came as freely
as the air’s pinch from the drawn window; as freely
as the boxed jazz from the stereo, wind chiming diegetic.
The scrutinized map on the dashboard
seeming not a map at all, only lines
constricting possibly more natural urges.
“I won the lottery,” spewed lines ambrosia on a red diner plate—ethicality, geography, morality
portions of a meal,
but more simply, seashells and labour, Piña coladas and hours.
Dark and light patterns in weather.
His diction seemed to stretch “vacation” an extra syllable.
Dreams, backgrounded by
his compulsion for the languorous, like
the waves he imagined passing him by.
The rooted wife in its image.
He drove so fast, we held each other’s hands
and made loaded eye-contact while scenes explicated.
Maybe we imagined living them, the fast-paced Jamaican sunsets,
(his spot of choice, he supported)
smelling the jacaranda through our stiff, numb noses,
and never needing a ride. A scratch-off fantasy. Write-off times.
L pointed out his wrong-turn.
I think he thought that if he concentrated enough,
that the snow might take on the consistency of sand,
that his passengers become licensed therapists, that his wife
change her mind.
If any of it bore any truth.
I like to believe that it did.
As though anyone wins the lottery.
—About the Author—
Leah Mosier-Farquharson graduated with a BFA from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Film and English programs. Mosier-Farquharson has been interested in film and aesthetics from childhood and in writing for as long as she’s been able to evocatively capture their characteristics. Residing in Montréal, Mosier-Farquharson hones her editing, producing and writing skills. She loves jazz, geography, and highly stylized photography.
*This is part of our series “AP Lit Trip” around the world, check out our previous jaunt to Indonesia HERE!