MercuryVoicemail
SAM: The Voice Messages
Message One:
Good morning Sweetums. Just a reminder to pick up some milk and eggs on your way home. X’s and Oodles. Sam.
END
Message Two:
Hey Loch Ness. I just wanted to hear what it would sound like. You know. If this was just another Tuesday and you and I were...
(PAUSE)
So, I have a confession. When we first met, I had you pegged for an imposter. I thought your wide-eyed, panglossian, friend-to-all air was an act, a front you put on to hide some deep-seated insecurity or ignorance of how the world really was. But then we got paired up in science class and you invited me to your house to work on our biodome project. Your little house with blue shutters on the “wrong side of the tracks” where we downed liters of Fanta Orange and Fritos and you made grill-cheese monsters for Milo out of dinosaur cookie cutters while your mom worked a double and walked him to bed where he slept with that “I Heart Anus” pillow -- “because, he couldn’t pronounce the ‘G’ in my name,” you explained -- and my hand brushed up against yours over glue guns and peat moss and I understood...You were the only honest person left on this entire ball of cosmic gas.
(Hints of humans wailing, property destruction, muffled banging off in the far distance... Sound of Sam putting his hand over the phone. A few second pause)
You don’t find the person in high school, in your junior year while making a terrarium out of plastic soda bottles. I tried so hard to convince myself of that, all the while wearing it on my face like a giant red clown nose. You made me ridiculous Agnes. You shook me out of my lull, my stupor of cynicism. It hap...
(Phone dies suddenly)
Message Three:
(Sam’s voice is more urgent. Background sounds of crashing and screaming get closer)
It happened so fast, Agnes. Do you remember? We were playing hide-and-seek with Milo. He was the finder. He was counting to a hundred. I slipped out from behind the curtains in your bedroom and watched you darting back and forth in search of the best spot.
“Phorty phive”
You were so... earnest. I whispered your name. Motioned you over. You wriggled in next to me. My heart leapt out of my chest like a drummer monkey.
“Sixty phree”
Beads of sweat rolled down the sides of my face. I swear one landed on your shoulder. I held my breath. You swung around. Face to face. It all happened so fast. Lips to lips.
“Eighty nine”
“Eighty nine”
“Eighty nine"
My ears buzzed. Everything felt suspended, held afloat by our lips. And then Milo, tearing back the curtain and yelling “Gotcha!” You bungled me Agnes. You found me. I.. I howled at the moon for you, did I ever tell you that? I wrote bad poetry. I had outbursts of uncontainable emotions. I think, no I know, I did, I skipped once. One day, walking to school I crossed over a sidewalk-chalk-drawn Hopscotch board and skipped! I should’ve been shoved in a locker. I should’ve been tarred and feathered. But I didn’t care. We found each other, Agnes. Do you know how rare that is?
(Noises now within reach. More difficult to hear Sam’s voice)
Do you think... If we had the time...We would’ve turned into our parents? Well, MY parents. Tuning each other out, taken for granted? Don’t let THIS strip the good from you. Don’t let it spoil your beautiful history. It isn’t you. It’s happening to you, but it isn’t YOU ! I Heart Anus! I love you Agnes Charles Drew. I... I have to go. I don’t want you to hear... Until we meet again, as fluttering fruit flies in the next Fanta bottle biodome.
PHONE HANGS UP