What's My Name?

 

The fourth caller seemed reluctant to get to the point. My timing was off. I decided to go out to the car to cool off. The girl inside realized that I'd left with a different suitcase than the one I came in with. I knew she had a problem with water under her skin. There was an embarrassing surfeit of diagrammatic creases on the underside of her anterior ulna. I bided my time, went in, had a Coke, mentioned her Dad's condition to the floorperson and emerged all-in-one to arrange a pontoon affair for the late afternoon in a prior week.

The problem with people who master the art of scalding is keeping them within bounds of propriety and good taste. This doesn't mean, however, that we ever want you to come down into a dressing area and play bold with facts and opinions. We are forever leaving call-box doors slung off their hinges. Now the little lubricator brings in the heavy artillery and delivers a fascinating exegesis on training opportunities in a risk-averse environment. No one is buying what he's selling, so, we settle down with our coffee and cakes and try to take the temperature of the whole situation. I find it difficult to attend classes while trying to lose weight. No one will stop giving me the lowdown on slinking through one of the camps nearby.

When I catch her Dad acting as though his affliction had gone unnoticed, I pretend to defer to a distant authority, all the while coming up with bits for next week's show. They can't help me, though, because I've been left for dead at the State Highway Interchange. The webbing is all caught up in her lower uvula. I know it might sound kind of corny, but I think she really understands my need for privacy. I watch her through the window of a nursing supply wholesaler. She's giving a guy behind the counter the business and I can't tell if she's had too much to drink. She plops herself down on a green sofa in the ready-room and I lick my lips because the altitude is starting to affect my ability to make reasoned choices in life. You'd think that someone would've come and gotten me by now. My name is Priscilla Henwick and this is my story. So there!

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