Part VII: Time Warp 2000’s – Cut! #5 (Chapter 107)
Dear George,
You
don’t strike me as the kind of guy who would choose to work in a prison
laundry.
Don’t
they have something better suited to your talents?
A newsletter or something?
A writing group?
I really liked your poem about the fire, especially the lines,
“Flames cut through the brick facade/ Rubber bullets spray the crowd/ Tricks
whisper/ Jump! Jump off and/ Die, die, die!/ Cut the thread that binds/ Your
life to mine.”
The “die, die, die” line might be a little too strong, but it
might be okay.
Did you really set that fire, or was that just poetic license?
My sister is doing much better now.
Thanks for asking.
They received the insurance money and bought a deluxe double
wide. She says they have nothing to put in it, though ‒ just a
big, attractive hull.
I don’t know why, but shortly after Sis’s fire, I bought a box
of matches. We don’t smoke, so we have no real need for them ‒ well,
maybe if the electricity ever goes off, which it never does. I even made a
special trip to get the kind that come in a large box, wrapped in waxy paper. I
specifically wanted the long wooden matches. Around here, we call them “barn
burners” because in the old days, the farmers stored them in their barns, and
when the matches spontaneously combusted ‒
Well, you get the general idea.
After running all over town, I finally found them at the
Giant. I told the adolescent clerk that I needed them to light the Franklin
Stove (which we don’t have), as if he really cared.
When I got home, I hid the unopened box in my underwear drawer
where they remain tucked under a pair of brand-new maroon lace bikinis that
Sheldon bought for me at Victoria’s Secret.
Do you
like that kind of frilly stuff?
Your
friend,
*
An egg that separates in the first four days
of pregnancy develops not only into separate twins, but results in separate
placentas, chorionic casings, and amniotic sacs.
Twins who separate between the fifth and eighth day share a single
placenta and chorion, but still have the benefit of two amniotic sacs.
Here, one twin can have a distinct advantage over the other.
Twins who split between the eighth and 12th days
share their amniotic sac.
Their cords, interacting within a rocky marriage, often
become entangled,
Finally, splitting after the 12th day, twins are
conjoined –
Fusing the thread that binds.