A Glass Menagerie (standard:romance, 1765 words)
Author: simplitis	Added: Aug 12 2005	Views/Reads: 3488/2334	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
It's about a girl and a guy, each with a story of a heartbreak.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

menagerie. You're the one. The culprit." 

Min tells her, as he's giving her his business card, "Yet, of lost love,
I know much. Of which, I was also the culprit. Let me buy you a drink 
tonight, if chance permits." 

The girl, with brows still furrowed, looks down at the lone man's
business card, head tilts slightly, perplexed, looks up at the man, and 
asks, "What is it that you do?" 

"I'm a computational linguist." 

A pause, and silence, an expecting silence, but the lone man does not
continue. The silence continues. The lone man starts walking, and 
closer to the girl in the pink mini skirt, and close, yet closer, to 
smell the sweet aroma of a girl, in a pink mini skirt. 

And as if walking away, two strangers just passing by in opposite
directions, he stops beside her, with the girl looking straight ahead, 
staring down the road that the man just traveled, in a stupor. 

The man, the lone man, stopped, looking straight ahead the other way,
leans in, feels the breeze perturb her shiny black hair to have it 
brush up softly against his cheeks in that memorable way. 

And he whispers, into her ears, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.
And sorry I could not travel both..." 

And then, walks away, without looking back, without regrets, without, as
the girl remains standing, still in stupor, turns, and looks on. 

"He's a computational linguist" she whispers to herself, and starts
walking away, not knowing that she's forgotten all about her lost love, 
and the shattered, the broken, glass menagerie with the jagged edges. 

So it begins. Again. Yet, again. Interrupted. 

"Hello? Did I call at a bad time?" 

"Jade! I was just thinking about you. Musing. Muses." 

"Huh? What?" 

"I'm sorry. Talking to myself again... bad habit. So what time?" 

"You're quick to jump to conclusions!" says Jade. 

"Haha I'm quick to jump into anything. I live by the heart, and my
heart, it beats." 

"Ok, Mr. Computational Linguist, how about we meet up at 8 PM in front
of Dandy Dandelions?" 

"How about I pick you up instead, Jade. Jade, I'll pick you up. We
shouldn't be meeting there, arriving, entering separately. I don't want 
it to be a meeting place. I'll pick you up, we'll enter together, to 
Dandy Dandelions. And let us never go back there again after today. 
Ok?" 

"You're definitely one to confound, Min. Come down on 18th St. and make
a left onto.." and her voice trails off, cut off, static, damn cell 
phones. 

The lone man looks at his cell phone, puts his thumb on the power
button, holds on, and the cell phone powers off. So this is how it 
begins. And the lone man walks into the shower, fumbles around for a 
bar of soap, washes, cleanly, freshly. The lone man walks into his 
closet, picks out something to wear and puts it on. 

He gets in his car and starts driving, and he spots an accessories store
some distance away, pulls into it, parks his car and goes in. 

"Excuse me. A glass menagerie. For a cell phone. Decorative. Do you have
any here?" 

"Ah! We have one here, it's a returned item though." 

"I'll take it." 

A glass menagerie. And he puts it in his pocket, a smooth, figurine made
of glass, delicate, and breakable. And he pulls up in front of Dandy 
Dandelions, parks. It's 7:30 PM, but he goes inside, and waits with a 
glass of water, whiskey, and fruit juice in front of him. 

Five minutes pass by, and it's 7:35 PM. The girl in the pink mini skirt,
still in her pink mini skirt, walks in, sees the lone man with a glass 
of water, whiskey, and fruit juice in front of him. 

"You're early!" Jade says 

"You're late. Pick a drink. What is it that your heart desires? Water?
Whiskey? Fruit juice? It's your choice. Jade, but I would like to tell 
you, the water is too blend, the fruit juice, too sweet, and frankly, 
the whiskey suits you." 

"In other words, you want to get me drunk tonight, huh?" 

"If that is what your heart desires, I would like to be the object of
it." says Min as he's delicately stroking the glass menagerie in his 
pants pocket. 

"The object of what?" 

"The object of your desire." says Min 

"Give me the whiskey." 

Sitting face to face, the lone man and the girl in the pink mini skirt,
they look on. The man stares past the girl, through the girl, out the 
window, and gets up. 

"Let's go." 

"Go where? We just got here." 

"I know, but we didn't enter together. I told you, I didn't want to
enter like this. I wanted to do it together, with you, in my arms, 
just, wanting, you, and me, to enter, here, together." 

Outside, the air is brisk, and the lone man and the girl in the pink
mini skirt, gets in the car. He drives off, out, into the world, away, 
far away, into the night, windows down, with the girl in the pink mini 
skirt, sitting next to him, expecting, hoping, and still, not a thought 
of the broken, shattered glass menagerie with the jagged edges. 

He reaches over to grab her hands, squeezes it tight, lets it go, then
squeezes it tight, only to let go again... and moments later, to have 
her squeeze back. And then, they squeeze together. And in that language 
of affection, they hold each other's hands, tightly, squeezed, and 
sweat starts to form between them. Whose sweat it is, it's not known, 
and at this moment, it's not important. 

Her hair, blowing in the wind, and the man, driving, looking straight
ahead, not a word spoken between them. Then the girl in the pink mini 
skirt, pulls on his hands, places it on her bare legs. And the man, 
starts moving his thumb, a sign of a man in coma, coming back to life. 
The girl, is biting her lips, her heart is thumping along, sits there, 
in sweet frustration. 

Min pulls his hands away, runs his fingers through his hair, sighs and
says, "I'm sorry Jade. This wasn't what I wanted. I wasn't planning for 
this to happen. I... I don't..." 

"Min, please, be quiet," Jade whispers, "and pull over in there." 

The lone man and the girl in the pink mini skirt pulls over. Sliding the
card key, they open the motel door and make their way into the room. 
Hand in hand, wanting, longing. 

Standing there, staring into each others eyes, anticipating, the lone
man, reaches into his pocket, and pulls out the glass menagerie, holds 
it, in front of the girl, and pauses. 

The girl, looks at it... and then, as if coming out of a daze of
blissful forgetfulness, remembers, the memories, the pain, the lost 
love, and relives, in that instant, everything. 

The man slams it down, shattering the glass menagerie into pieces of
jagged edges. 

The man, forcefully grabs the girl, pushes her onto the bed and kisses
her and kisses her some more. As the clothes come off, as they 
rediscover their lost selves, as she holds on, not wanting to let go, 
as she holds on, her hands in his hair, on his body, intertwined, in 
each other, not caring, not thinking, nothing. 

And he whispers in her ears... 

"Glass menagerie, twice broken, twice shattered, twice the culprit...
and yet..." 

The night continues, as they discover and rediscover, taste and retaste,
each other, and themselves. 


Tweet