Two Characters in a Paragraph
The story is only two paragraphs long. I’m working on the end of the second paragraph, which is the end of the story. I’m intent on this work, and my back is turned. And while I’m working on the end, look what they’re up to in the beginning! And they’re not very far away! He seems to have drifted from where I put him and is hovering over her, only one paragraph away (in the first paragraph). True, it is a dense paragraph, and they’re in the very middle of it, and it’s dark in there. I knew they were both in there, but when I left it and turned to the second paragraph, there wasn’t anything going on between them. Now look …
dream
Swimming in Egypt
We are in Egypt. We are about to go deep-sea diving. They have erected a vast tank of water on land next to the Mediterranean Sea. We strap oxygen to our backs and descend into this tank. We go all the way to the bottom. Here, there is a cluster of blue lights shining on the entrance to a tunnel. We enter the tunnel. The tunnel will lead into the Mediterranean. We swim and swim. At the far end of the tunnel, we see more lights, white ones. When we have passed through the lights, we come out of the tunnel, suddenly, into the open sea, which drops away beneath us a full kilometer or more. There are fish all around and above us, and reefs on all sides. We think we are flying, over the deep. We forget, for now, that we must be careful not to get lost, but must find our way back to the mouth of the tunnel.
dream
The Language of Things in the House
The washing machine in spin cycle: “Pakistani, Pakistani.”
The washing machine agitating (slow): “Firefighter, firefighter, firefighter, firefighter.”
Plates rattling in the rack of the dishwasher: “Neglected.”
The glass blender knocking on the bottom of the metal sink: “Cumberland.”
Pots and dishes rattling in the sink: “Tobacco, tobacco.”
The wooden spoon in the plastic bowl stirring the pancake mix: “What the hell, what the hell.”
An iron burner rattling on its metal tray: “Bonanza.”
The suction-cup pencil sharpener being peeled up from the top of the bookcase: “Rip van Winkle.”
Markers rolling and bumping in a drawer that is opened and then shut: “Purple fruit.”
The lid of a whipped butter tub being prised off and then put down on the counter: “Horóscopy.”
A spoon stirring yeast in a bowl: “Unilateral, unilateral.”
Could it be that subliminally we are hearing words and phrases all the time?
These words and phrases must be lingering in the upper part of our subconscious, readily available.
Almost always, there has to be something hollow involved: a resonating chamber.
Water going down the drain of the kitchen sink: “Late ball game.”
Water running into a glass jar: “Mohammed.”
The empty Parmesan cheese jar when set down on counter: “Believe me.”
A fork clattering on the countertop: “I’ll be right back.”
The metal slotted spoon rattling as it is put down on the stove: “Pakistani.”
A pot in the sink with water running in: “A profound respect.”
A spoon stirring a mug of tea: “Iraqi, -raqi, -raqi, -raqi.”
The washing machine in agitation cycle: “Pocketbook, pocketbook.”
The washing machine in agitation cycle: “Corporate re-, corporate re-.”
Maybe the words we hear spoken by the things in our house are words already in our brain from our reading; or from what we have been hearing on the radio or talking about to each other; or from what we often read out the car window, as for instance the sign of Cumberland Farms; or they are simply words we have always liked, such as Roanoke (as in Virginia). If these words (“Iraqi, -raqi”) are in the tissue of our brain all the time, we then hear them because we hear exactly the right rhythm for the word along with more or less the right consonants and, often, something close to the right vowels. Once the rhythm and the consonants are there, our brain, having this word somewhere in it already, may be supplying the appropriate vowels.
Two hands washing in the basin: “Quote unquote.”
Stove dial clicking on: “Rick.”
Metal rug beater being hung up on a hook against the wooden wall of the basement stairs: “Carbohydrate.”
Man’s wet foot squeaking on the gas pedal: “Lisa!”
The different language sounds are created by these objects in the following way: hard consonants are created by hard objects striking hard surfaces. Vowels are created with hollow spaces, such as the inside of the butter tub whose lid and inner volume created the sounds of the word “horóscopy”—“horó” when the lid was coming off and “scopy” when the lid was put down on the counter. Some vowels, such as the e’s in “neglected,” spoken by the plates in the dishwater, are supplied by our brain to fill out what we hear as merely consonants: “nglctd.”
Either consonants function to punctuate or to stop vowel sounds; or vowels function to fill out or to color consonants.
Wooden-handled knife hitting counter: “Background.”
Plastic salad spinner being set down on counter: “Julie! Check it out!”
Drain gurgling: “Hórticult.”
Orange juice container shaken once: “Genoa.”
Cat jumping down onto bathroom tiles: “Va bene.”
Kettle being set on clay tile: “Palermo.”
Wicker laundry basket as its lid is being opened: “Vobiscum” or “Wo bist du?”
Sneeze: “At issue.”
Winter jacket as it is being unzipped: “Allumettes.”
Grating of wire mesh dryer filter being cleaned with fingers: “Philadelphia.”
Water being sucked down drain of kitchen sink: “Dvo?ák.”
First release of water from toilet tank as handle is depressed: “Rudolph.”
I don’t think I’ve heard or read these words recently—does this mean I always have the word “Rudolph,” for instance, in my head, maybe from Rudolph Giuliani, but more probably from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”?
Zipper: “Rip.”
Rattling of dishwashing utensils: “Collaboration.”
Rubber flip-flop squeaking on wooden floor: “Echt.”
If you hear one of these words, and pay attention, you are more likely to hear another. If you stop paying attention, you will stop hearing them.
You can hear the squawking of ducks in the scrape of a knife on a plastic cutting board. You can hear ducks, also, in the squeaking of a wet sponge rubbing a refrigerator shelf. More friction (wet sponge) will produce a squeak, whereas less friction (dry sponge) will produce a soft brushing sound. You can hear a sort of monotonous wailing music in a fan or two fans going at once if there is some slight variation in their sound.
There is no meaningful connection between the action or object that produces the sound (man’s foot on gas pedal) and the significance of the word (“Lisa!”).
Bird: “Dix-huit.”
Bird: “Margueríte!”
Bird: “Hey, Frederíka!”
Soup bowl on counter: “Fabrizio!”