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Brad Rose's Blog – October 2009 Archive (41)

Occam’s Razor (Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

Lola wondered why Richard hadn’t said anything to her about him seeing a therapist. Maybe he was embarrassed, or maybe he forgot? Then she remembered “Occam’s razor": “Of two equivalent theories or explanations, all other things being equal, the simpler one is to be preferred.” She paused for a moment. Was Richard depressed or was he “seeing” another woman?

Lola preferred the simplest explanation, and cautiously opened the medicine cabinet, peering in to see if she had… Continue

Added by Brad Rose on October 31, 2009 at 5:30pm — 1 Comment

Not Even a Wedding Ring to Protect Him (Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

Buck was a moderately observant person—it was a requirement of his profession. As Jackie drove him home, he noticed that she wasn’t now wearing those gloves, those dainty little lace gloves, she had worn when she had driven the stolen Mercedes.

Fingerprints! Why didn’t I think of this sooner. Of course, she was wearing those to protect her from leaving any trace in the stolen Mercedes.

Richard immediately looked down at his bare hands…naked, not even a wedding ring… Continue

Added by Brad Rose on October 30, 2009 at 10:30am — 1 Comment

Long-Horn Steer and Six AM Budweisers (Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

Buck was dressed in his customary dark blue, 505 Levis and a white button down long sleeve dress shirt, although the sleeves of the latter were rolled up to just below the elbows, giving him the appearance—at least from the waist up---of a business man, hard at work.

Buck had long worn what he’d come to think of as his “uniform”: jeans, cowboy boots, and a dress shirt—white or striped. He wore the same sartorial arrangement today, as he did 15 years ago, when he had been a student in… Continue

Added by Brad Rose on October 29, 2009 at 9:30pm — 2 Comments

Home Therapy (Richard and Lola, Jacke and Buck)

“Don’t you find it a little frightening to see clients in your home?” Buck asked Jackie. “It must be weird for you to have crazy people in your house?”

Jackie smiled as she corrected Buck’s mis-impression, “I don’t see them right here in my living room, Buck. I have a separate office, with a separate entrance. My clients don’t parade through the front door, and saunter through my private living space. Besides, they aren’t exactly ‘crazy’…well at least most of them aren’t, anyway.”

Added by Brad Rose on October 28, 2009 at 8:30pm — No Comments

Rosary (Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

Had Richard been seeing a therapist? Lola wondered. She loved Richard, and she knew he was intelligent, but he was also so up-beat and optimistic and well, Pollyannaish. He didn’t seem the “type” to be in therapy. On the other hand, maybe she was underestimating Richard’s complexity---she detected that he had a deeper, maybe even darker side? Just because he was good looking, didn’t necessarily mean he had to be a vacuous “airhead,” like all the other Hollywood pretty boys Lola met at her… Continue

Added by Brad Rose on October 28, 2009 at 4:00pm — No Comments

Lola's Favorite Flavor (A Reprise)

He had no idea how the stimulus package was going to work. He wasn't an economist. Hell, he'd barely graduated from high school, and could scarcely hit the ground with his hat, if she gave him three tries--in a row. But he loved Lola more than the moon and the stars and the wiggly little fish in the azure sea. And he vowed to himself, that if she moved like that one more time,--just ONE more time--especially in that summer dress, while consuming a melting ice cream cone, like that one she was… Continue

Added by Brad Rose on October 28, 2009 at 11:30am — No Comments

Not a Thing Out of Place (Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

Wait a minute. What am I worrying about? Richard reminded himself. She doesn’t know that I entered her apartment—how could she? She’ll never discover that I read her journal. I left everything exactly as I found it. Not a thing out of place.

Added by Brad Rose on October 28, 2009 at 11:30am — No Comments

Mortal Sin (Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

Richard paced around his apartment. He was distraught. He had disappointed himself and he violated a sacred trust, he knew it. It was absolutely taboo for him to read Lola’s journal, even if it was only a few pages. He felt like he had sinned and this was a “mortal sin,” from which he knew he would never recover.” Not as long as Lola was alive.

Added by Brad Rose on October 27, 2009 at 10:30pm — 1 Comment

The Unworried Psychotic (Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

Jackie spent a good deal of her day listening to people talk about their troubles, their challenges, their childhood’s of abuse and neglect and violence. Consequently, she welcomed the occasion when she would encounter a client who had enjoyed a happy childhood and, despite what they thought, a pretty decent adult life. She welcomed a chance—too rare for her tastes--- to treat the “worried well,” the client who only thought she had problems, but didn’t really. These clients were the ones that… Continue

Added by Brad Rose on October 26, 2009 at 9:30pm — 3 Comments

Bad Jigsaw

Why would a woman who was beautiful and a successful psychotherapist steal a Mercedes and take it on a joyride across LA? And why, Buck wondered, would such a woman spend the morning drinking in a downtown bar with her brother, his friend, and an assortment of daytime drunks? The pieces of the puzzle just didn’t fit. At least not to Buck’s immediate satisfaction. But Buck knew that the world was not a neat jigsaw. He’d learned from experience that the pieces seldom neatly fit, no… Continue

Added by Brad Rose on October 26, 2009 at 8:30pm — 4 Comments

Anatomically Incorrect? (Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

While Richard drove home, he reflected on his life. What good was it, he wondered, having a girlfriend who loved him, if she hated him? I don’t think Lola ever really forgave me for that rooster suit I wore on our first date. She’s such a complex person. I should have been more cautious. I wonder if she would have preferred it if I wore a different costume, say the Ken doll costume, even if it is anatomically incorrect?

Added by Brad Rose on October 26, 2009 at 7:00pm — 4 Comments

Blue Ink (Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

In her white, New Balance running shoes, Lola strode across the living room floor toward her tiny kitchen.

Suddenly, she stopped for a moment, as if arrested by something she’d detected that was out of place in the living room.

She recalled…or at least thought she did… that when she’d departed her apartment for her walk, earlier in the day, she’d left her journal opened to her latest entry. Yes, she remembered now, the pen she used for today’s entry—a long one, about her… Continue

Added by Brad Rose on October 25, 2009 at 8:30pm — 1 Comment

Better Safe Than Sorry (Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

Lola returned to her apartment to find a small, white business card wedged in the gap between the front door and the door frame. She pulled it out and read its neatly lettered, almost architectural, handwriting on the back, “Dropped by to say hello, but you weren’t home.” She turned the card over and noticed that Richard’s note had been written on the back of a business card for a psychotherapist, named Jackie Weston. Lola mused for a moment, before turning the door’s unlocked doorknob and… Continue

Added by Brad Rose on October 25, 2009 at 10:00am — 3 Comments

Beautiful Felon (Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

Buck raised the coffee cup to his lips and noticed that his hand was trembling. Just slightly trembling. Jackie was busy pouring herself a cup, so she didn’t notice when, in a moment of self-consciousness, Buck paused to steady his hand by resting the rim of the coffee mug on his lower lip for a moment. The coffee smelled powerfully strong.

He smiled at Jackie as she leaned over her cup and poured a little cream into its waiting rim. My God, he thought, she is the most… Continue

Added by Brad Rose on October 24, 2009 at 11:00pm — No Comments

Matching Sox (Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

Maybe I was too hard on Richard, Lola thought, but why did he have to ask me a question like that? I really like Richard. I wouldn’t have spent this much time with him, if I didn’t. Or, God… maybe I am just desperate? And lonely? Anyway, even if I am, I really shouldn’t have told him when he asked me last week what I liked about him, that the two things that really stand out for me about him are that he smells clean and his socks always match?

Added by Brad Rose on October 24, 2009 at 1:00pm — 3 Comments

Cheating 6

At il Pomodoro, the evening’s elegance is cracked by contretemps. Your eyes, a glittering fuse, and words sharper than a rain of chain lightning.

I know you’re yelling at me only half the story, and behind it, I hear another man’s voice--the truth might as well be buried on the moon.

Later, we’re on the street, the night’s rain sparkling down, as a cab crawls up to you like a supplicant.You get in and confess to the driver an unrecognizable address. He’ll take you back,… Continue

Added by Brad Rose on October 23, 2009 at 7:30pm — 1 Comment

Open Secrets (Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

As he peered in through her living room window, Richard could see that there was a book, with egg-shell colored pages, open on the coffee table, just a few feet away.

It was a large book, and he recognized, even from this nose-pressed-to-the-window distance, that it contained hand written pages, in what appeared to be Lola’s large, looping handwriting.

(Richard had long thought that Lola’s writing looked like that of a 7th grade girl; she deployed large whirling stokes of… Continue

Added by Brad Rose on October 23, 2009 at 3:30pm — No Comments

Life May Not Reach to the End (Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

He had read somewhere, a very long time ago, a line he remembered now. It was from a poem, in a magazine, that he found in his parents' living room. He read it when he was 12 or 13. At the time, he didn’t have the slightest idea what it meant, which is why it had stuck in his mind over all these years. ‘I feel like my life may not reach all the way to its end.’ The longer Richard loved Lola, the more sense that obscure line made to him, now.

Added by Brad Rose on October 20, 2009 at 1:00pm — 3 Comments

Decaffeinated Only (Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

“Do you typically steal cars and then ditch them on Mulholland ?” Buck asked Jackie, just after they entered her front door.

“Do you typically tag along on joy rides?” Jackie retorted.

“No, not with women I’ve only known for an hour or so.”

“You look like you could use some coffee, Buck, would you like me to make you some?”

“Yeah sure, do you have decaff? The regular keeps me up all damn day.”

Added by Brad Rose on October 20, 2009 at 10:30am — 1 Comment

Peeping Richard(Richard and Lola, Jackie and Buck)

Richard stopped by Lola’s apartment. He rang the doorbell, but Lola didn’t answer. He rang it again. Still no Lola. He tried to peer into the front living room window, but was afraid how his doing so might appear to the neighbors. Damn the neighbors, Richard thought, as he pressed his nose to the glass and stood on the tips of his toes, like a young child looking longingly into a pet store window.

Added by Brad Rose on October 19, 2009 at 10:00pm — 2 Comments