Unpleasant people

  "Why would I want to 'hang out' with unpleasant people?" 

  "Fit right in." 

  "Maybe you'll meet someone."  

  "Your wealth depends on it." 

  The man in barefeet and tuxedo pants from the night before stood statue-still as a woman put a fresh shirt on him.

  Across the city professors gathered at a bookstore under the pretense of reading the same book in a book club that would continue to meet over the summer.

  "Did they really say that on the news?" 

  "Whadda ya live under a rock?" 

  "Suspended?" 

  "For pushing too hard." 

  "It's like Hollywood: Hurry up and wait." 

  "Well, it's a vicious cycle.  My students who usually paint crew over the summer are saying no one can afford wood and wall." 

  "Mine are

  "There's a real man in there.  I know," the woman said softly into the man's ear as he stared at himself in the mirror.  He didn't say anything quickly.  And turned towards a wall as he reflected, "Why?  Why did they phrase it that way?" 

  "Who?" 

  The man hadn't known anyone per say in the practice-run community meeting.  And he felt frozen from his actual feelings.  "Them.  They.  Some of them.  Asked me, I, me, who gave me the gorillas?" 

  The woman's head and face moved in a circular shape as she made almost a neighing sound.  "Round and round they go.  I don't care who they are." 

  The man turned back to the mirror and looked at the woman.  She pushed her breath out and continued

  "Does my hair look that bad?" The food server had played off the insult out loud.  Then she mumbled, I am going to kill Moses.

  A woman with a very Southern accent spoke loudly, "So I combined the cabbage rolls with cornbread." 

  "And it was good?" 

  "I guess so." 

  "It was delicious!" A man sitting at a nearby table said. 

  The magazine writer shot over a question.  "This was where?" But was engrossed in a conversation about how a famous comedian put out an ad campaign about people who don't look like me but how on TV the getting beyond racism message wasn't carrying. "Can you imagine anyone accusing Robin of racism?" 

  "What goes with cornbread?" 

  "Darling, everything goes with cornbread!" 

  "Oh wow!  Like wow to the max!"

  "He just woke up." 

  "Look at all these gay people." 

  A chair scraped away from a table.  A hulk of a man stood and asked, "What did you just say?"

  "Take it easy son," the man's father stood up slowly, stiffly and put a hand on his son's shoulder.  "Sit down Dennis," his mother said.  Without looking at her the man said, "No." Then he announced to the room, "In case, you haven't heard, the WHOLE WORLD is not gay.  It's something like 10% THEY SAY, SO, probably means 4.5 percemt." 

  "It's just soooo colorful in here." 

  People looked at eavh other.  The father and son and mother were in matching pastel salmon-coloref polos.  The mother explained, "We're breaking them in for Easter.  We still habe no washer and dryer." 

  "Where:d you get those?" A woman asked.  "I need some for Passover.". A teenage boy put his head in his hands. 

  "Did you..." The woman with the thick Southern accent started to ask.  The Jewish mother turnrf herself in thr chair and looked at her.  "Did you make the cabbage rolls?" 

  "Sourwood camp?" 

  "I'm still not sure where we were but it was not far from Gatlinburg.  Not terribly far." 

  A crowd of people formed a queue at the door.  "Coming to the community meeting?" 

  "Huh?  I'm here for tea." 

  "What's the wait mate?" 

  "We don't belong here." 

  "Sure ya do, y'all are as welcome as any'n us." 

  "We're going to a group function for Easter," said the woman in the pastel-colored shirt.  "I don't want to lose my boys." The woman's smile didn't quite make it to happy. 

  "So are we," the Jewish woman called out through the now crowding dining room.  The teenage boy said, 'Ma...nooooo...mother, that's a Boy Scout weekend." 

   "Not this year, not for you." 

  'Mind if I sit mate?" 

  "She might." 

  A tall man in khakis asked for hot coffee.  The man who'd called everyone gay stepped up next to him.  "You wanted to see me Sir.". The tall man looked him up and down and pondered out loud in a hmmmmmm way.  Then he asked, "How far did you drive?" 

  "Well, I didn't drive Sir but rode from Tennessee, I think, it was dark when we left." 

  A man's voice rose above the din, "Mr. George, am I going to be able to get you back on the submarine?" 

  "Not if they keep me on the food tour!"