Mimetic Response 5

The spinning top keeps going, [[round]] and [[round->round2]] and [[round->round3]]. How it captures the [[light]] just so. [[Fleeting]] on the table top, eternal for the [[little boy]] with a [[fist]] full of [[quarters]]. Making tracks in [[toy store]] dust with its paper and string [[price]] tag dragging along the surface.

''This toy is my favorite because it wants to be with me. Can I have it?'' [[No]] [[Yes]]

''I think I like this toy so much because we both like to spin. Do you think it will ever stop spinning?'' [[Yes->Yes2]] [[No->round3]]

''It will never stop spinning, therefore I will never stop spinning. I will spin so much that I will catch the [[light]] as I go [[round->Start]]. Do you think it will look the same in Father's office?'' [[Yes, of course it will.->little boy]] [[No, it's special here. Cherish that.->light]]

The [[little boy]] reads bedtime stories with Father. The [[little boy]] reads poems with Mother. [[Mother]] is a very poetic woman. Father likes girls, not women. This doesn't seem to bother mother. She told her son, by a dimmed candle, wrapped in a shade, that Father was the sun to her. The [[little boy]] had made a game out of staring at the sun during outdoor time at school. Throughout his next lesson, he could only see the sun, blinding white, even with his eyes closed. It hurts. Mother says it's worth it. That there's a [[price]] for everything.

I need to keep spinning. I want to [[shine->light]] like she did. I want to [[shine->light]] like Father does. It never sticks around, but it keeps coming back, hungry with sharp canines. I learned what canines are today in the [[toy store]]. Father growls, I think.

There's a little boy, laying belly down, on hardwood floors that are immacuately polished. The floors belong to a man with a very big and important name. The little boy knows him as [[father]]. With all of his [[allowance->quarters]], he bought a spinning top, that's (text-colour:red)[red] (text-colour:blue)[blue] and(text-colour:grey)+(bg:(gradient: 0, 0,#ffffff,0,#e5e619,1,#ffffff))[ shiny]. He wants to be [[shiny->light]] like the spinning top. Maybe [[spinning]] himself is the way to go.

There's a hole in plaster wall that covers a side of the kitchen. A girl didn't make that. A man didn't either. ''Do wolves bite so hard because they don't have fists? Are they angry or hungry? I couldn't stand to be that hungry. '' [[Little boys->little boy]] shouldn't know what hungry looks like. He learned it from his [[mother->Mother]].

When he brings the top to the cashier, a kind looking older man with a (text-colour:yellow)[yellow] [[smile->light]], the little boy counts the change out on the counter. Father taps his foot behind his son, despite only having to wait for five quarters. The old man picks up the top carefully, precious cargo, and wraps it in tissue paper. //Tap tap tap// goes Father's foot. He puts the gently wrapped treasure in a bag with a bow. Father snatches it and tells his son to come on. ''Please be careful with that. ''

The musty smell is familiar like a library book the little boy has checked out before. The lights are (text-colour:yellow)[yellow] and [[shine->light]] warmly like a fireplace on Christmas. ''Father said that since I'm so distinguished, and since I saved up my allowance, I can buy whatever I want with my money!'' He proudly holds a [[change->quarters]] book in one hand, most of its contents in the other. [[That doesn't seem fair->No]] [[How much is the top you want?->price]]

The numbers that Father rattled off at the end of a long work day were as meaningless as chicken scratch to the little boy. Ten thousand dollars was small to him a week ago, before the (text-colour:red)[red] and (text-colour:blue)[blue] woman, and before he had to buy is own top. Ten thousand dollars was massive to him when the five [[quarters]] took up so much room in his tiny palm.

''Oh, okay. '' The [[little boy]] shoves the [[fist]] of [[quarters]] back into his pocket. Another day, then.

''Oh goodness, [[thank you->round2]]! ''

''Oh. Well I guess it isn't so special then. '' [[I guess not.]]

''Is it okay if I want it to anyway? '' [[Of course->round3]]

There was a girl on stage. Not a woman, a girl, the men with smoke hanging around their heads said so. She looked like an old picture of [[Mother]] that the little boy found in the attic during an adventure. He saw her three times. [[On a window display on the street.]] [[In a club he had wandered into, looking for his father.]] [[Hiding in the hallway closet.]]

Father is important because he makes the most out of any of the other fathers at his firm. Mother doesn't seem to understand that. When he tells the little boy this, the little boy feels special to be part of something so privy. He even takes his son to the [[toy store]] for being such a distinguished, discreet young man. He is a man. The (text-colour:red)[red] and (text-colour:blue)[blue] girl is not.

There was a big window in a old brick builidng on a street with (text-colour:red)[red] street lights where a mannequin would be put in. Instead, there's a [[girl]], wearing (text-colour:blue)[blue] feathers and not much else. Her smile is warm and her teeth catch the [[light]] in a way that the little boy can't look away.

He had been sitting at a table missing a leg with other men in suits. The table was not straight enough to spin his top on. The [[girl]] on stage had found him first, after she had gotten down and put her brassiere back on. Father had smiled at her with [[wolf's teeth]] before he had hurried the little boy out.

[[Mother]] came back early from Aunty's house in the countryside. The [[girl]] was dressed the same as she was in the window and on stage, bare. Mother asked the little boy to hang her coat as she was awfully tired, and there the girl was. She held up a finger to her mouth. So did Father, later on. The little boy mimicked it both times, because the girl had [[spun->toy store]] like a top and Father [[shone->light]] like a top.

Before he started wearing suits, Father was fantastic at bedtime stories. Little Red Riding hood was a favorite, except for the bits with the [[wolf]]. Father looked too hungry when he acted out those parts, and he sounded like he did when his and Mother's voices were muffled by a wall. It scared the little boy, the way his teeth would [[shine->light]].

Mother isn't pretty like a spinning top, but she isn't as flimsy as one either. She's strong like a [[teddy bear]]. A man in father's office muttered to him one day that she reminded him of a ghost. It made me think of a profile snapshot she took that got [[double exposed]].

[[<img src="https://duchamp-lvr-48.neocities.org/DoubleExposed.jpg" width="500" height="600">->Back]]

A teddy bear's fur feels like easy love when a [[spinning]] top's [[shine->light]] demands it. It (text-colour:blue)[demands] it, (text-colour:red)[commands] it, and (text-colour:black)+(bg:white)[goddamns] it.

[[<img src="https://duchamp-lvr-48.neocities.org/Girl_Spinning Top.jpg" width="500" height="600">->Back]]

[[<img src="https://duchamp-lvr-48.neocities.org/ManWolf.jpg" width="500" height="600">->Back]]