#604 Rust- T.C. Boyle
Walt and Eunice are old and living out their retired lives in their old house. They had a dog, but at this moment Walt didn’t know where it had gone to.
“He didn’t know where the dog was, though he knew where his first bourbon and water of the day was—right there on the TV tray in front of him—and it was 11:00 a.m. and plenty late enough for it.”
He went outside to the yard—a place he hadn’t been in years—to find the dog. He falls, and is unable to move. He calls out for his wife, but there is no answer. His hearing isn’t all that good and she’s been drinking as well. She’s probably just sitting in front of the TV.
“…where time was meaningless, a series of half-hour slices carved out of the program guide, day melding into night, breakfast into dinner, the bright electrons dancing eternally across the screen.”
By nighttime, she finally goes looking for him, and by the time, she sees him, she has already tripped over his fallen body and she joins him on the grass—her hip now broken. Depending on how you look at this story, it’s either very funny, or extremely depressing. Old age like this is not exactly something to look forward to.
Notable Passage: “You measure your life in dogs, if you’re lucky you’ll get five or six of them.”
No comments:
Post a Comment