SYNOPSIS of Novel “THE BEINGS”: Hans is the man who has the power to stop History through the power of Haiku; Assuss is the man who likes History and tries to stop him. (Okay, says the character or person who isn’t so sure what he thinks of the foreign-sounding Haiku, history so far has been kind of bad in certain respects, but heh, can you imagine life without it? )

THE BEINGS are a bunch of weirdos, AKA AMERICANS, who overthink everything and misunderstand everything. Some time educated and other times not their heads are turned now by Assuss and now by Hans but unintentionally frustrate the ambitions of both, and have screwy ideas — and are themselves the representatives of the unstoppable trend of history.

In this novel, THE BEINGS, the ultimate aim of ALL HISTORY will be made clear. [From, THE AUTHORS of THE BEINGS]

Customers were from West Virginia, going back for holiday. Customer hated color grey, “my Least favorite color,” she said. Customer liked characters in movies who were scrappers, was why she liked Scarlett O’Hara. (Customer also liked the movie Imitation of Life.) Customer had just scored goal in pick up soccer game (Trash goal?) “No — good goal.”

Customer: You write in long hand? Attendant: you don’t? Customer: And then you put it on the computer? That’s amazing. No I don’t write longhand except for Christmas Cards and other notes… I suppose — with creative work… Attendant: Out of curiosity, how do you write? You do research and the paper kind of falls out of it? Or do you write first –? Customer: was there another way? Something stirs your interest, you look into it, then you write about what you’ve found.

Customer was L———e, her annual visit. Dropped that she had lived in London 19 years now (her evident love of London and Englishness.)

(Attendant at home watching his thawed brussels sprouts dropping like eyeballs among his searing tofu cubes. Attendant stirring the green balls among the white cubes, pan sizzling, and thinking he might add peanuts.)

Couple on couch leaning shoulder to shoulder on each other, to view a computer site together. Old man alone staring into space. A food truck I’d seen pass to the right in the morning I now see pass to the left in the evening. This reminds of the customer who came in on the way to work and has come in to relax now that he’s done. Bright white and yellow van passes from right. On way to work the next morning, I see the same bright white and yellow van pass. “It’s all very tedious until it gets sad.”

Young sensuous couple laughing/ gentling mocking someone’s attempt to parallel park across the street.

Attendant finds (non-homeless) customer who will fall asleep in the store asleep in a nearby city bench. Customer who’s homeless now, but wasn’t once, will come in to sleep for twenty minutes at a time.

Question — was there good and evil in history or just competing interests? Customer — FDR was pretty good and Stalin pretty evil.

Customer — there was insufficient bicycle parking in this area.

.….. A. a I
...v v iR
e a _acargoshipv a v
.. hlscrapedthesurfaa i
..taceofthebrookl A R I
..e. c ynbridgeinv a
.m h ^newyorkonfrii r
…Integument..l..Integument…
c h p……………e……………c h p
o o h……………m……………o o h
l p y…………….e…………….l p y
o p l…………….n…………….o p l
n o l…………….t…………….n o l
u l i…………….n…………….u l i
s e s…………….e…………….s e s
commination |commination
e a …..μὴ.,.a vv .. hl……………,,,,,a i
hl…,,φῦναι……,a. h B…………..,,,. A R I
ta…..τὸνἅπαν,. R . hE ………….,,,,,.v a
e …..τανικᾷλ.,,.va. h L ……….,,,,,.i r
m. h όγον᾽…..alin ….. hB.o.irvair
d. a..………….pQ
L……….……N
.A..L.D

White, middle-aged, driving one-handed, putting chip or fry-sized wafer in his mouth from right. White, twenties, baseball cap, driving one hand, male, scratching left cheek with first two fingers of left hand. White guy reaching across body over left shoulder for seat belt — must have only just gotten on road. White sun-glassed Gal making turn out of parking lot, hands at 10 and 2. Middle Eastern middle-aged “mini-vanned” man: you couldn’t see where his hands were positioned, but by the way his chin was set against his throat, you felt they must be at seven and five. (Mini-vanned perhaps my worst coinage yet, worst instance of anthimerian so far conceived.) Blond woman, sunglasses, leaning forward and looking up as if to check something far behind her in the rear-view. Repair man in cap: fully turning head left, then fully right, then quickly again left, before gunning it to the right.

Beer cans upside down in my sink, an area of melted snow beside the walk: of underground cables and machinery, great knob of cables surrounding the machine.

A bit of ice that a tire had imprinted and split in two, which my foot step upon it again pushed together, restoring the imprint; then hearing the sort of sound only a person in his own head could hear from his body — my wrist rubbing against my moustache.

Have I felt something or have I not felt something. Looking to where I may have felt something I see a small black bug on the back of my right hand and I conclude that I have felt something and that this bug is what I’ve felt.

I see it move and feel it’s tiny motions along my hand, giving me visual confirmation of the real cause of my sensation. Then I blow at it, to send it off, but it remains unmoved by my blow. Therefore I blow again, which blows it off, another non-event.

Have been trying to think of that word for a few days now, that was a murmuration overhead.

(Deja vue of having had and written of this experience of failing to recall and recalling the word.)

a th sn f
r h e e r
p a d d e
e f g s s
n i e id h
ρ θ᾽258 259, (0) ……………….
ὕδ ((1))166(1);t ……………..
ατι 1545462it’s……………
λια (0)awhere Fsi………….
ρῷ 1we are but ………..
ῥέειnow, R but………
, ἀand whe A\ t…….
μw e ha ve b.……
6 φὶbeen fo Zr.
δὲ κfive ye .Aa
swin…ang…ines
I w i r i f
c th u t t
a a n h h
s sps s e
t on ou t
i ge up r
n ash wo
t below

Customer liked walking before coming rainstorms. Customer needed measurements of the store: wanted to contrast it with megaron of Odysseus’ house. (Could you envision the last books of the Odyssey as occurring here? The slaughter of the suitors?)

Customer said his hair hadn’t been this long since 1984 and in fact his feathery bangs evoked the period.

Pardon, attendant said: did you just ask me not to glom it on or not to glob it on? —Glob it on. I’m from New York where they always glob it on. You’re on the subway and the butter is bleeding through the bag.

You know, attendant said, I’ve known a few customers over the years to try discrimination lawsuits and it absolutely never comes off, that I ever hear about. — Which is exactly what happened with my first law suit, said customer. Would you believe they appointed a lying black judge to dismiss my case?

Customer said he was glad attendant had forgotten the soup — he had already had enough to eat and would just have it the next time he came in.

Customer’s eyes were full of suffering as he placed his order. Then, not an hour later, seeing him handcuffed and put in a squad car.

The way certain people put money in the tips receptacle which indicates they’ve worked in hospitality themselves: a manner of concealing the usually overly large amount they put in, thrusting in the whole hand.

The curve of the customer’s heel corresponded with that of his elbow, and the line where his rear met the seat mirrored that where his shirt met his pants.

Customer rotated his still wrapped brownie on the counter as he spoke– one edge per half independent clause spoken, I approximated.

Customer said she was involved in the Chamber of Commerce in a neighboring region and was impressed by the quality of the community around here — dogs and families, people out for walks in the evening.

Customer: they do room inspections at my retirement facility to make sure your place is clean — oh boy — and I had mine today — woe boy — and they didn’t like what they found (heh heh heh) — to say the least

Customer planned on taking his MRI with him to the podiatrist. Otherwise, the podiatrist would just tell him he couldn’t tell him much without an MRI — then charge him fifty dollars.

Customer, who had made the remark that his hair had not been this long since 1984, when he repeated the remark, said it had not been this long since 1983.

Customer accidentally left shawl. Customer did not break, but may have sprained, ankle. Customer was a young man from Serbia driving his cousin to Rock Creek Park.

The interesting curtailment of speech that you hear, an audible hyphen, when someone forgets your name mid sentence.

Thank you, —

One hears the comma, indicating something is to follow, perhaps a name. Then one hears the hyphen indicating a sudden change of plan; now nothing is to follow because your name has been forgotten.

*

This happened twice yesterday. In the first instance, the speaker was someone who knew my name very well but could be prone to fits of poor recall (“Thank you, –” she had said, trying belatedly to make the hyphen sound like a period.)

In the second instance, it was someone I’d known for a decade at least, but would rarely see more frequently than once or twice a month. “Thank you, –” she had said — and it was then that it struck me how very different “thank you,” punctuated that way, sounded from “thank you.” punctuated with a full stop.

Construction worker shimmying, his arms high on the handles, to get the last of the gravel out of the tip of his wheel barrow.

Cabbie problem: when he got there he told her the fare would be 12 dollars and she was like, ” I didn’t think would cost that much.” and sheesh, you would think that people when they got in a cab would have a working idea of how much their trip was going to cost them. But I don’t know, maybe they don’t…

A playing card face down on the road. I stop and stoop and flip it over to test my luck, and it is too weathered to tell.

Something stuck to it also.

One of those people whose palms, when their arms are in a relaxed hanging position, face directly back, rather than slightly inward like mine do — a delivery man.