Will Harris
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Back to Issue 7 |
The Linelet’s call him joe
let’s say joe is not among the lucky ones who realize early perhaps have always known there’s an overdue debt to be paid some are quick to forgive themselves drive the mile or thousand miles fall on their knees before the clerk or cashier lower their heads and raise the check with both hands some proclaim their rights by phone message e- or snail-mail some insist they aren’t guilty take their service numbers and place in line do their time and perhaps, someday their case is settled Mumbler5 minutes into a 12-minute cab ride
joe realizes they’re on the desert road headed out of town Even in the faint dusk light joe sees the hardening eyes in the mirror At 80 kilometers and accelerating the uneven shoulder falling into infinity joe thinks I might survive if I leap now so he sits back stares at him in the mirror American the driver says again and joe nods in the dark the answer joe never denies Taliban the driver says to an unseen entity hovering between them that could be a daughter a brother the chief of a village And still there’s light enough to see the gritted teeth the clean nails shaking the 50-caliber steering wheel 10,000 the teeth manage to say in startling English 10,000 the voice goes silent like spent shells Where do you work the teeth ask as the speedometer nudges past 120 The university Umh they say Uummh And the teeth begin mumbling a tune distorted by pain that once sounded like a nursery rhyme The university they repeat and hum more loudly begin to rock until the nursery rhyme becomes a moan joe sits still beside his acquaintance death looks nowhere makes no sound 150 on the speedometer the governor screams its steady tone joe feels the teeth release the accelerator they loop right at the next corner loop right again head back to a place of light the teeth disappear from the mirror they can no longer see joe the road anymore the nursery rhyme has ceased the teeth mumble to nothing joe can see when they arrive at Al Jimi Mall the head that owns the teeth slumps forward on the steering wheel joe leans over the seat sets the fare and five-dirham tip beside the head and the teeth and exits the cab without looking back until he hears the taxi edge forward without a passenger |
Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Will Harris was born into a military family and spent most of his public school years outside the U.S., particularly in England and Germany. After serving two military staff tours in the Middle East, he left the military but returned to live in the United Arab Emirates. He and his wife visit the U.S. during the summer months.
Will’s writing is forthcoming or has been published in African American Review, The Austin Writer, Cold Mountain Review, College Language Association Journal, Colorado-North Review, decomP, Eleventh Muse, Existere, Mantis, MELUS, NEBULA, Reunion: The Dallas Review, Storyscape, The Trinity Review, Voices in English, Wascana Review, Word Riot, Writers’ Forum, and The Zora Neale Hurston Forum. |
