1.Things started to go bad for us fast.
It started when she looked up
and shouted, “The phone’s out!”
“What?”
“The damn phone is out! They cut me
off ‘cause I didn’t pay.”
“It was probably the storm,” I said.
“No. I know GTE, they’re assholes!”
“Did you get a warning?”
“No! Here‘s the bill. See, due June 15th.”
“Yeah, but you owe $250!”
“So what, back in Phoenix, I owed that much in a month!”
I looked at it, and the monthly amount was about $6o bucks.“It was probably the storm,” I said quietly.
2.“No, goddamn it, it’s the FBI!”
“What?”
“The goddamn FBI. They’re bugging me-ever since I came back from Europe penniless.They do that, ya know?”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, see.” She brings out a savings-book or something,Payments that are late to the IRS-see!”
“Oh,” I say, and look back at the computer screen. I was tryingto get a poem off onto a floppy disk, but the fuckingfloppy drive was damaged, so the floppies were getting chewed up.
“Do you have another floppy?” I asked.“No!”
3.The next day she called me, “They want $150!”“Who?”
“The bank, that’s who, they returned 5 checks and charged me
$30 each. And I have to pay the phone company. It wasthat damn clutch letting go.”
“Maybe you should go see the bank.”
“I’m tired of paying for everything.
I’m tired of this city, I’m movingout-it’s the goddamn Gulf, that’s what it is-somethingabout the ions in the ocean. I should be in Phoenix in the dessert, I do better there-that’s what it is; besides, everyone’s going to Cuba.”
“Call me later, honey,we’ll straighten this out, and then talk about love.” “I don’t care about that.” she said.“What?”
“I don’t care about love!”
I sure wish I got that poem out of her computer.
