velcro libido

faith: a culmination of scenarios

Beside these rushed, careless words is the back and front cover of faith. The artwork is courtesy of Melissa Kearney, great Cape Breton/ Halifax artiste .

Below the beautiful cover lies the first few paragraphs of “The Most Beautiful Girl at Work Last Night,” one of the chapters in my upcoming minibook, faith. If you like it, you can download  the complete book  here

 

Faith sets her drink down and shrugs a melancholy sigh.  She looks down and considers her to-the-moment fashion.  She contemplates her friends as they talk at each other.  Sandra is speaking earnestly, dividing her attention equally between Faith, Samantha and the five-layer dip.  Samantha is maintaining eye contact with Sandra in the same manner a sketch comedian maintains contact with a teleprompter:  furtive glances slice jubilant and encompassing looks throughout the bar.

It is these times that make Faith feel the full weight of her mother’s disapproving quietude.  That heavy maternal pressure that, while meaning “what do we all do this for?” is always worded “what are you going to do with your life?”  She physically rolls her eyes as she thinks of her mother’s adoration for her sister.  Sure, Faith thinks.  My sister may be an out of shape, complacent, self-loathing cow who married an unconfident, controlling asshole, but she’s achieved the pinnacle of female success.  She’s a teacher.

Neither Faith’s mom nor sister can comprehend the lifestyle Faith has chosen.  The dumpy relatives she painfully visits in carpeted rumpus rooms thanks to her parents’ yearly “gift” of christmas at “home” are boggled by Faith’s lifestyle choices as well. Her younger relatives feel the burn of their high school sweetheart’s disapproving stares.  The older ones relate stories or facts they have picked up on tv or at the local bowling league apropos snowboarding, resorts, or snowfall.

“No, Nan. Whistler.”

But the casual nodding and mmm-hmm’s fade to tongue clicking when Faith exits, heads shaking.

“She’s so thin.”

Faith genuininely can not understand the tenacious stance her mother takes, asserting her daughter is “wasting her life out west.”  Faith frowns, wondering whether or not they’re right.  Lately, she notices, she has much less confidence in her ability to recognize what makes her truly happy.

download the pdf

The Most Beautiful Girl at Work Last Night