“Is life worth living?” questioned a masculine voice.

The dimmer switch connection of my brain was turned down way low. I couldn’t answer him right away.

“Eden? Did you hear me?”

The man was persistent. I touched my cheekbone with my fingers as that side of my face stung and throbbed at the same time. “What just happened?” I asked.

A graceful hand turns
the body of a fist-sized fruit,
sensing the ripeness.

“You’d better find that bloody cricket,” Griff said. “I can’t concentrate.”

“What am I supposed to do?” Elmer responded. “It could be hiding anywhere.”

Griff turned around, his face reddened from frustration. He took off his thick glasses. “Don’t you realize how hard it is for me to do my job? That stupid noise is getting on my nerves. You don’t want that happening when I am working on this, get it?” He pointed to a small metal box sitting on the workbench in front of him before rotating back to his starting position.

“Okay,” Elmer said. “I get it—we can’t botch this job.”

Garbage in, garbage out.
Whatever in the world is that all about?
You throw away a perfectly fine red hat,
when it could be worn by a handsome black cat.
Don’t get me started on those overcooked noodles.
It’s a favourite delicacy of the ultra-posh poodles.
The well-soaked and warmed-over coffee grind scraps
are what flavour-seeking worms dream of during their naps.
So what if the flowers are a little bit wilted?
If they are tossed-out too early, they feel utterly jilted.

I spotted the gilt frame from a distance. I didn’t bother stopping to look at all the other shelves between where I stood and my new-found target. It’s like the thing emanated a magnetic field that pulled me in. Everything else fell to the margins. If I had passed a bar of gold, I wouldn’t have noticed it. If William Shakespeare sat in one of the old chairs they placed at the front of the store, I wouldn’t have cared. I had never felt such a feeling of tunnel vision. In my single-mindedness, I bumped into someone without saying, excuse me. That should tell you how obsessed I’d become in a matter of seconds.