8/13/2019 Magnetic Memories
1/5
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 $ilm St!dies. %ollege reares yo! for The &eal
World'TM(in the strangest ways.
Women come ! to !s, gestic!lating violently. They hold
cliboards for !s to sign. )ind of like n!ns only not. *!ns
don+t !s!ally get yo! to sign things. What do yo! call those
things -abits t+s a bad habit to invade eole+s rivacy. We
are rivate eole, b!t we are also to!rists. S!ch things are to
be e/ected. mean, how dare we visit a co!ntry astards. !rn
in hell. Shorts and trainer socks and shoes draw them to o!r
a!ras. r made o!r a!ras. am not s!re why we dress like this.
2ictated by something or other. We 3!st wore what felt sensible
8/13/2019 Magnetic Memories
2/5
S!rname 4 Story Title 4 5
b!t somehow it makes !s look anachronistic, as if we were a
f!t!re eole who find everything so boiling that legs can never
!nder any circ!mstance go clothed.
The non"n!ns contin!e their barrage of gest!res, tho!gh
Sean is less hynoti6ed. -is change wo!ld mysterio!sly disaear
aro!nd the homeless, not o!t of site b!t a wish to not do wrong
so strong that nothing wo!ld be done. -e stands on the erihery
of the shaded crowd with the face that knows am far too
tr!sting. 7 reg!lar lanche 2!bois, read what they want me to.
7 etition to hel deaf"m!tes, and with them being said deaf"
m!tes did not wish to ref!se. t+d 3!st be mean, right &ight.
Mean. wo!ld never mean to do something like that. feel bad
eno!gh for ass!ming that their signing was random. My signat!re
is for s!ort of something"something"$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
8/13/2019 Magnetic Memories
3/5
S!rname 4 Story Title 4 :
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. $ish hooked smile with bleeding g!ms b!t
not the kind from The Simson+s. wonder if it seaks anything
abo!t my sychological condition.
8$#%);&
8/13/2019 Magnetic Memories
4/5
S!rname 4 Story Title 4 >
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.
8/13/2019 Magnetic Memories
5/5
S!rname 4 Story Title 4 A
*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.
Top Related