Monday, September 25, 2006

Extra money

1. I was sitting on the long swirl-armed sofa in the living room. And in my hands was an unfolded newspaper advertisement. A large part of what the ad showed was green grass.

2. I already pulled down the shades of the two windows in the living room, so I could view the advertisements without any sunlight obscuring any of the words or pictures. And I relied on the light from the light bulb that was behind the flower-patterned lampshade of the standing lamp standing beside me as I sat on the sofa.

3. I was waiting for my dinner to be ready, and I was interested in the colorful advertisement page that appeared separately in today's Sunday paper. I enjoyed my life as an MFA graduate student at Johns Hopkins, in Maryland. I was 29 years old, and I was living with my wife. She was 26 years old. And we were in love, I thought.

4. In this particular advertisement I was looking at there were three lawnmowers pictured in the upper right-hand half of the page. And there was a patch of colorful flowers pictured in the upper right-hand corner of the green grass that was there. The green grass was too green, though, almost a bright lime green. And the lawnmowers seemed to be cut out and literally pasted onto the green grass.

5. And there were a few supplementary descriptive sentences printed upon each of these lawnmowers and green grass. The prices of each of the lawnmowers hovered above the lawnmowers in very large bold red numbers.

6. Jeez, am I glad we don’t have to worry about mowing the lawn. I would hate to have to buy a lawnmower, I said from sitting on the sofa in the living room, to my wife Lisa who was in the kitchen cooking dinner.

7. Really? Why, are they expensive, she said from the kitchen, while opening the oven door a little bit to take a peek at the onion rings.

8. I’m just glad we don’t have to worry about it. That’s what’s good about these townhouses. I don’t mind paying the extra money for the maintenance. There are so many different lawnmowers, I just wouldn’t want to worry about whether I bought the right one or not. And then if it breaks down! I said.

9. Why, how much are they? Lisa said, and she was now finished looking at the onion rings and closing the oven door.

10. The most expensive one here is $1,299 and 99 cents, I said, still sitting on the sofa in the living room.

11. That is expensive, she said from the kitchen.

12. Lisa was looking at the shiny Formica countertop. She was actually staring at the white gold-sparkled countertop. And she seemed to be particularly focused on a small space on the countertop where there was an unusually high number of gold sparkles clustered together. And while she stared at the cluster of gold sparkles, she imagined for a moment that the cluster was made up of actual gold pieces that could be available to her if she would only reach for it.




TO BE CONTINUED.




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14 comments:

Canopenner said...

Wow Flic,

Ive never seen a post of yours with this much personal information in it.

Also, I think everything is too expensive these days...But you can buy a used lawnmower and fix it in my neck of the woods for under 50 bucks...I guess people are willing to really shell out for "New" things...Ill never understand why.

I hope those onion rings tasted good.

:^)

David said...

I look forward to seeing this continued.

Unknown said...

Sounds interesting. I look forward to the continuation.

flic said...

canopenner- That does seem to be a theme in this piece, people wanting to "shell out for new things". And yes, those onion rings tasted good!

david and leon- Hey, thank you both for looking forward to the continuation!

flic said...

-----------------------------------
TO ALL YE WHO ENTER THIS COMMENTS SECTION:

As a reader, what did you like most about this piece of writing? What is the one thing that sticks in your mind after reading it?

Or, let me know what you liked least about it. What was not working for you?

I would appreciate any or all thoughts you have regarding this piece of writing.

Thanks very much.
-----------------------------------

Elle said...

Well, I thought about our hunt for an electrical lawnmower in Al Ain when we finally got our grass to grow and it needed it's first cut.

As things go in this place, once we found it Carrefour decided to stock some that year.

What was funny about this electrical lawnmower was it came without an electrical cord! Have you ever! You have to buy them separate here!

Hope she does find that cluster of gold!

flic said...

elle- How's your garden growing lately? Are you still using that same lawnmower?

As the saying goes, you have to pay extra for the things that you need.

And I'm glad that you're rooting for her to find that cluster of gold!

Elle said...

Well the garden is looking great. Just needs colour now. I'm watching the roundabouts and I've noticed they are starting to prepare the beds for flowers. Think I'll do so too.

Our grass is lush and green, yes we still have the same little mower 2 years on. Surprise, Surprise as we got it in one of those tiny little shops in town. Sometimes they do surprise you with the quality they stock.

puerileuwaite said...

Material cravings are a surrender to the illusion that happiness can one day be attained in this manner.

Also, $1300 is way too much for a friggin' lawnmower. The same amount toward a granite countertop would increase resale value, and could therefore be considered an investment.

Jesse said...

Act now, you can buy those back from me.

flic said...

jesse- I don't need to buy them back, they're already in the library.

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