MONOPOLE

From the novel Monopole. Time passes. Gertrude comes to retrieve Teddy, pushing in an old-fashioned wheelchair. She is hurried, almost stressed in her manner, but she continues to exude an air of general agreeability and somewhat welcomed servitude. She folds up Teddy in the wheelchair as one might put away an old, delicate blanket. Her skin is soft against Teddy’s. She has sweet, blue eyes and a milky complexion with a few speckled blemishes. Her sandy hair isn’t quite well

“a breeze on the air, a blue sky” He sees birds playing through the trees and remembers they exist and hates their freedom. Two lovers sit on a park bench grotesquely kissing. Two men who appear homeless wrestle over an empty bottle. A third man throws chess pieces at them. A little girl throws breadcrumbs into the pond for the ducks, which a little boy scares away with rocks. The little girl hits him on the arm, then cries and runs to her mother. The little boy looks back at