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1,000 words

Magnetic Memories

by Thomas Jennings

We wandered in the Parisian desert and knew it was nothing

like the movies. Jean Seberg never left sots of blood down her

roads of cell!loid. The no!velle"vag!e version of Paris never

made me feel hot and sticky, either. #nless it was the classroom

we had for $ilm St!dies. %ollege reares yo! for The &eal

World'TM(in the strangest ways.

Women come ! to !s, gestic!lating violently. They hold

cliboards for !s to sign. )ind of like n!ns only not. *!ns

don+t !s!ally get yo! to sign things. What do yo! call those

things -abits t+s a bad habit to invade eole+s rivacy. We

are rivate eole, b!t we are also to!rists. S!ch things are to

be e/ected. mean, how dare we visit a co!ntry astards. !rn

in hell. Shorts and trainer socks and shoes draw them to o!r

a!ras. r made o!r a!ras. am not s!re why we dress like this.

2ictated by something or other. We 3!st wore what felt sensible

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b!t somehow it makes !s look anachronistic, as if we were a

f!t!re eole who find everything so boiling that legs can never

!nder any circ!mstance go clothed.

The non"n!ns contin!e their barrage of gest!res, tho!gh

Sean is less hynoti6ed. -is change wo!ld mysterio!sly disaear

aro!nd the homeless, not o!t of site b!t a wish to not do wrong

so strong that nothing wo!ld be done. -e stands on the erihery

of the shaded crowd with the face that knows am far too

tr!sting. 7 reg!lar lanche 2!bois, read what they want me to.

7 etition to hel deaf"m!tes, and with them being said deaf"

m!tes did not wish to ref!se. t+d 3!st be mean, right &ight.

Mean. wo!ld never mean to do something like that. feel bad

eno!gh for ass!ming that their signing was random. My signat!re

is for s!ort of something"something"$rench. ther to!rists

mill abo!t with waistlines that in them in the #nited States of

7ss!mtions. %aved in knees bring their faces to the cliboards,

seeking s!ort for water retaining 3oints. take a en,

something below a ic balloint, and scrawl my signat!re which

isn+t a signat!re. 8TJennings8, with the lower lick of the 8S8

crawling !nderneath as an !nderline. Then see the other

fields. h. Money. don+t really have money. 7 lot was sent on

that hotel we had to go to when the we co!ldn+t find the other

hotel in taly, oerated by an old man who was res!mably a

combination of 9andhi and Mother Teresa witho!t the resective

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enema fetish or sadistic tendencies. can+t write anything with

a 6ero after it, maybe not even a single digit.

8Sorry8, say, and t!rn to walk away. 7 hand grabs my

clothes. 8Sorry, can+t.8 The fingers are less keen to say a!

revoir, nails digging into a shirt so sodden +m s!rrised it

doesn+t tear. They do imressions of 8The Scream8 with

additional crocodile tears and faint moaning. Thomas Jennings,

rofessional in his ability to !set invalids and not give to

charity. *ot to!ching it at all wo!ld have been less offensive.

-e doesn+t and wo!ldn+t b!t imagine Sean !lling a face

somehow beyond sm!g. $ish hooked smile with bleeding g!ms b!t

not the kind from The Simson+s. wonder if it seaks anything

abo!t my sychological condition.

8$#%);&

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say more b!t +m not ?!ite s!re why that didn+t fit in, oh well.

7 shell, contin!e, following orders. This is like 7!stria, the

military m!se!m had a once removed interest in. 2o yo! get it,

following orders So bloody witty. $eet so bloody. *ot feeling

witty. @!ite so"so. *eed water. $eel sick. The two are not

m!t!ally e/cl!sive. Maybe satiating one wo!ld hel the other.

Who knows *ot me. We went into a cafe.

t was a erfectly average cafe. 7 miserable man in

lederhosen, !nlike the ?!ite leasant eole not in lederhosen

we met in 9ermany. There is a smell, or rather the absence

thereof. -ow odd. *o one else is here, the cafe doing the

c!rio!sly ;!roean thing of being wider than it is dee. There

are abo!t three tables. We ask if we co!ld have some water. !y

some water. oth of !s need water b!t +m not s!re if Sean is

sick. -e says no. Misery g!ts, mean, he says no, yo! can+t

have water. Why not, we say. h, well, yo! can+t sit in here if

yo!+re 3!st b!ying a water. 7nd yo! can+t b!y bottled, either.

Tho!gh they do sell bottled. t+s not for off remises

cons!mtion. We wo!ldn+t b!y anything walking away, now wo!ld

we -e doesn+t say that last art. My mo!th hangs oen. n

7!stria, the same sit!ation, walking back from the

aforementioned military m!se!m, the man not only let !s b!y

water, he gave !s one for absol!tely nothing as a bon!s and two

glasses filled with ice.

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*ever have wished to be in Bienna more. r Sal6b!rg.

=iving in the ast, b!t a leasant ast, m!ch like how 7!strian

c!lt!re oerates. hate Paris. hate Parisians. hate their

attit!de, the !tter contemt they have for h!man beings of other

c!l!res, that they call the to!rism office for the ;iffel Tower

the e/loitation office and esecially hate that they charge

to see *aoleon+s Tomb.

told Paris to f!ck off b!t it didn+t. 7 shame for all

concerned.