by Jenny Ortiz
\n
<\/br><\/p>\n
<\/br> Later on, when the movie is finished, East goes into the kitchen for some cereal.\u00a0 She opens the fridge only to find the milk carton empty.\u00a0 Throwing on her leather jacket, she waves to her fish and heads to the supermarket.\u00a0 This is the only thing she hates about the real world.\u00a0 The things she needs don\u2019t appear in front of her, she has to go out and get them.<\/p>\n As East walks down the block, she once again concludes that as much as she misses certain things that made her life easy, she would not be some kind of sleeper cell; that\u2019s what she\u2019d promised herself when she left the world created by the Authors and entered the real world.\u00a0 She forgot about the steam punk nation she\u2019d been born into and settled in New York.\u00a0 She\u2019d been a nomad there and had nothing and no one to miss.\u00a0 Sometimes East thought about Roan, the way they\u2019d travelled through forests and swamps on their way to\u2026 where?<\/p>\n She couldn\u2019t remember what ending the Authors had planned.\u00a0 A face off with her brother, Ian.\u00a0 No, she shakes her head as she walks down the block to the corner, where the red awning of the supermarket is drooping low and is threatening to fall on the crates of dry apples and thick skinned oranges.\u00a0 She isn\u2019t going to spend her youth waiting for the Authors to pick up where they left off.\u00a0 Let Ian control that world, overthrow the king or the corporation; she isn\u2019t even sure who is in power anymore.\u00a0 Her leader now is the President of the United States.\u00a0 Though she isn\u2019t sure what democracy means, East believes it\u2019s better than an army of zombies that keeps the population in check.<\/p>\n The only thing East really misses about her old life is the show Dinopups.\u00a0 She is wearing a shirt, with a Dinopups character on it.\u00a0 It reminds her of the card game that went with the show and how she\u2019d played with Ian.\u00a0 She never lost.\u00a0 She doesn\u2019t have the cards or the show or, for that matter, anyone to play with anymore.<\/p>\n East doesn\u2019t like to think about the past.\u00a0 Her story had once been written with enthusiasm, only to be left midway through.\u00a0 She and the other characters were in a perpetual wait, repeating the same actions, walking in circles, pretending to be lost.\u00a0 Having clawed her way out of the swamp, East had pulled herself out from between the green ink and white lined paper.\u00a0 Pushed the words off her skin and took a job at a Laundromat.\u00a0 East avoided other characters, the ones who escaped and certainly the ones still in stories.\u00a0 In every book, she could hear them calling for her to come back.<\/p>\n But as she makes her way to the open fridge in the back of the supermarket, East thinks about all of the people she left behind.\u00a0 She knows the only reason she\u2019s thinking about the story and the past is because of The Grappler, Jude here.\u00a0 He\u2019d moved from her story to another collapsed story, only to be abandoned.\u00a0 He\u2019d always been a good character\u2014she liked his smile and the way his boots were always covered with desert sand.\u00a0 But the Authors took him out of her story because she was supposed to only have interest in Roan.\u00a0 But Roan isn\u2019t around anymore and the other day, Jude and East went out on their third official date.\u00a0 He\u2019s coming over later tonight for a movie, some snacks, and wine.\u00a0 Along with the milk, East buys a pack of condoms.<\/p>\n <\/br> The fish don\u2019t jump like East does to the sound of knocking on her door.\u00a0 The popping sound follows her as she opens the door.\u00a0 Wet and panting Jude stands in front of her with a big smile.\u00a0 He\u2019s wearing his tattered black coat and dusty boots.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re writing the ending of our story.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI woke up this morning and was in the forest, looking for you and Roan.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLooking?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI work for the cooperation, duh.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been trailing the two of you.\u00a0 Of course I\u2019m only working for them to get revenge for my wife\u2019s death\u2026 but that doesn\u2019t matter, what matters is that I was trailing you in the story.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou just woke up in the story?\u00a0 How\u2019s that possible?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are characters.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t been pulled back into the story.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot yet, but I think you\u2019ll be written in sometime tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut I work tomorrow.\u00a0 And I\u2019m pulling a double shift because the rent is due at the end of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s that matter?\u00a0 We\u2019re going back home.\u201d<\/p>\n She looks around at the things she\u2019s bought and rearranged so carefully.\u00a0 The couch from IKEA she\u2019d assembled on her own, photos of the day she adopted her fish, the magazine subscriptions, the television, Bruce Lee.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I need a drink,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n <\/br> It\u2019s at these times when she remembers her past with sadness: the smell of the trees and the soft, mud like texture of the ground under her bare feet.\u00a0 Towards the end of her time in that world, she stopped using shoes.\u00a0 Gave up the worn down ankle boots for a thin layer of dirt on her skin.\u00a0 Had Roan disapproved?\u00a0 She couldn\u2019t remember.<\/p>\n \u201cCan we go?\u201d she says, looking at Jude.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just got here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI hate this fucking place.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou wanted to get a drink.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy couldn\u2019t we go to a normal bar?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause this is where our people are.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not my people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd humans are?\u00a0 You can\u2019t do anything with them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd going where?\u00a0 You going to go see another Bruce Lee movie?\u00a0 That\u2019s really assimilating to the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n She ignores him and zippers up her jacket against the wind.\u00a0 Jude\u2019s right.\u00a0 She\u2019s lonely here.\u00a0 No, not lonely, haunted by nothing.\u00a0 East realizes now that nothing has a weight.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t heavy, but uncomfortable, making itself known.\u00a0 Whenever a Bruce Lee film ends and the credits are flashing on the screen, East feels the nothing.\u00a0 She doesn\u2019t feel it when she\u2019s with Jude, but she hates his reasoning as to why: they\u2019ll only be fulfilled if they\u2019re reconnected to the story.\u00a0 She crosses the street, narrowly avoiding a speeding car.\u00a0 She doubts the driver sees her; she\u2019s like a sliver of black paper floating in the dark.<\/p>\n A guy in a biker jacket opens the door to another bar, a bar with real people inside.\u00a0 She mumbles thanks and slips in, avoiding the guy in the front checking ID.\u00a0 Though no one is smoking, there is the smell of cigarettes on everyone\u2019s clothes and the sound of the cash register is shrill and overpowers the sound of people talking.\u00a0 East slips through the crowd and takes a seat at the end of the bar, orders a beer, and begins to watch the people.\u00a0 She likes how the girls\u2019 sleek metallic colored skirts crawl up their thighs as they dance in place.\u00a0 The music is bad, but no one seems to notice.<\/p>\n When she notices him, he is standing with a girl in cr\u00e8me colored pants too tight for her thighs, but she\u2019s still attractive.\u00a0 He\u2019s standing next to her talking, his face close to hers, and he is bent slightly to meet her. When he stands up straight, he\u2019s tall, thin, and with his white buttoned down looks more like a sheet of paper than East does.<\/p>\n A heat settles in East\u2019s thighs and right below her breasts as she watches the girl shrug and move away from the paper-like man.\u00a0 He sighs and puts his beer bottle on a table nearby and leaves.\u00a0 East follows him all the way down to the subway.\u00a0 She luckily has a MetroCard and quickly follows him towards the platform where he waits for the A.\u00a0 It\u2019s already one in the morning, and from the looks of another man on the platform, they just missed one.\u00a0 They\u2019ll have to wait another thirty minutes.\u00a0 Putting on her headphones, East chooses an instrumental to play while watching the paper man.<\/p>\n East likes taking the train; she likes watching the people.\u00a0 They slowly become her characters, each one with a story she won\u2019t abandon.\u00a0 Sometimes, she\u2019ll feel the urge to write one down on paper, but she never does.<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t notice her until they\u2019re on the train and she\u2019s standing next to him, her eyes on an ad by his head.\u00a0 She smiles at him.<\/p>\n \u201cYou were at the bar with your girlfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, she\u2019s a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut you want her to be your girlfriend?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2014I don\u2019t know\u2026\u00a0 Do I know you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u201d\u00a0 She pauses.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m East.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNice to meet you,\u201d he says, not looking at her.\u00a0 She is still smiling.<\/p>\n <\/br> \u201cI get them for free from the adjunct faculty lounge.\u00a0 The Popular Mechanics<\/em>, too.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you a teacher?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot yet.\u00a0 I\u2019m a graduate student.\u00a0 I get a stipend for helping a few of the professors with their classes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat sounds interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, it is.\u00a0 What do you do?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI work in fashion.\u00a0 I\u2019m responsible for organizing and separating different colors and textures of the clothes to be used on the models. \u201c<\/p>\n \u201cSounds pretty important.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is.\u00a0 One slip up and a whole week\u2019s worth of fashion statements are destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you thirsty?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s already in the kitchen and doesn\u2019t hear her.\u00a0 The furniture in his apartment is sparse, except for the old couch and the stack of books neatly against the off white wall where the television should be.\u00a0 On the bottom of the stack is a biography on Bruce Lee.\u00a0 Carefully, East pulls the book from the bottom without toppling the other books on the modern world and literary theory.\u00a0 She flips through the pages until she finds the photos and examines each one.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you into him?\u201d he asks.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah.\u00a0 I have all his movies.\u00a0 I\u2019ve read this.\u00a0 Did you know he pitched the show Kung Fu?\u00a0 In the end, they didn\u2019t cast him.\u00a0 But he said the moves in the show were more ballet than\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know much about him.\u00a0 My friend was studying alternative philosophy and left this behind,\u201d he says curtly, avoiding her eyes.<\/p>\n He hands her a beer and they move to the couch.\u00a0 They look at the bare wall silently.\u00a0 Their arms are touching and she can feel the tension in his body.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing to keep her eyes focused on and the beer in her hand is warm.\u00a0 She sets it down by her feet and puts her head on his shoulder.\u00a0 Looking at his forearm, East examines the black hairs sticking up and the veins bulging slightly.\u00a0 He\u2019s breathing evenly, which surprises her. She wants to ask him about the girl with the cr\u00e8me colored pants, but doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 Where the walls meet, there is an opening to her story.\u00a0 She knows he can\u2019t see it; the branches of the trees are sticking out and leaves are slowly crawling on the wall.\u00a0 The shadow of a man passes through the trees.\u00a0 She shudders; he puts his arm around her.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you have a bedroom?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n She follows him and before they even get inside, she begins to remove her clothes.\u00a0 The floor under her feet is muddy and in the distance she can hear Roan\u2019s voice.\u00a0 He\u2019s looking for her.\u00a0 East closes her eyes and lets the stranger kiss her.\u00a0 Sex with him is like a warm finger flipping through the pages of a book.\u00a0 She ignores him as he whispers the name Abigail and focuses on her movements.\u00a0 When they\u2019re finished, she gets dressed and leaves without saying goodbye.\u00a0 She takes with her the newest copy of Popular Mechanics<\/em> for the ride home.\u00a0 She isn\u2019t particularly interested in Abigail\u2019s Bruce Lee. On her way up the stairs to her apartment she finds Jude leaning against her door.\u00a0 She smiles at him.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere did you go?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI went home with someone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of the story?\u00a0 You have no choice.\u00a0 You\u2019re going to wake up one morning and find yourself back there.\u00a0 What are you going to do, crawl back to the real world every night?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf I tell you I\u2019m good, you will think I am boasting.\u00a0 But if I tell you I\u2019m no good, you know I\u2019m lying,\u201d she mumbles slowly as she opens the door.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n Jude is standing in the doorway.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s only the best line Bruce Lee ever said.\u201d\u00a0 She pauses, her body is slumped slightly.\u00a0 \u201cI think that it reflects this situation quite well.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to do whatever I need to so that I can stay here.\u00a0 If I have to cut off zombie heads in the subway or get pregnant\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIs that why you slept with that guy?\u00a0 To get pregnant?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow did you know I slept with him?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou slept with him?\u00a0 I was just taking a guess.\u00a0 East\u2026\u00a0 It\u2019s not normal for us to be with them like that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf I tell you I\u2019m good\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cStop saying that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOkay, how about this one: Love is like a friendship caught on fire.\u00a0 In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering-\u201c<\/p>\n \u201cEast, stop,\u201d he says as he pulls her towards him.<\/p>\n \u201cAs love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable,\u201d she says smiling.\u00a0 \u201cPretty, huh?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEast.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it\u2019ll spread into your work and into your life.\u00a0 There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them\u2026\u00a0 He said that too.\u201d<\/p>\n East pushes away from Jude.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy are you saying all this?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy am I?\u00a0 How am I capable of memorizing every one of Bruce Lee\u2019s famous quotes?\u00a0 Why can I work in a Laundromat or have a one night stand with a stranger?\u00a0 Why would the Authors build all of this in my character if I was supposed to do what they want me to do in a faraway place that doesn\u2019t mean anything to me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re the main character.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo I have to be?\u00a0 Why can\u2019t they make another character?\u00a0 We\u2019ve evolved.\u00a0 We\u2019re no longer the characters we were.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not true.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou haven\u2019t killed anyone while we\u2019ve been here.\u00a0 You haven\u2019t talked about revenge or even thought about your dead wife.\u00a0 No, every night you come over and we eat Chinese food and listen to music.\u00a0 You\u2019re more out of character than I am.\u201d\u00a0 She pauses.\u00a0 \u201cBruce Lee says\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPlease tell me.\u00a0 Tell me what Bruce Lee says.\u00a0 He\u2019s dead, East.\u00a0 And you know what he did when he was alive?\u00a0 He made movies.\u00a0 He became a character.\u00a0 He wanted to be one of us.\u00a0 So shut up and come back to the story.\u201d\u00a0 His shoulders are slumped.\u00a0 \u201cWe can be immortal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering,\u201d she recites another quote; this time she says it as she walks towards the kitchen table.\u00a0 She sits down and looks at him.\u00a0 \u201cAs you think, so shall you become\u2026 that\u2019s what he says\u2026 said.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s appropriate for us\u2026don\u2019t you think?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re selfish.\u00a0 What about Roan?\u00a0 You\u2019re going to leave him alone?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf the Authors let you remember me, remember the time we visited the Empire State building.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNight, East.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNight Ju\u2014Grappler.\u201d<\/p>\n After watching him leave, East turns off the lights and turns on the television, but doesn\u2019t focus on it.\u00a0 Instead she drinks some milk from the carton, and sits on the couch, waiting to fall asleep.\u00a0 She thinks about the things she needs to do for work and wonders when she should buy a pregnancy test.\u00a0 She avoids the sounds of the jungle coming from her bathroom, closing her ears off to Roan\u2019s crackling fire or to Jude\u2019s boots crunching the plants on the ground, as he prepares to kill. by Jenny Ortiz Use only that which works and take it from any place you can find it. \u2013 Bruce Lee Strewn on the couch are second hand clothes and old kung fu movies.\u00a0 East likes Bruce Lee the best; … Continue reading
\nStrewn on the couch are second hand clothes and old kung fu movies.\u00a0 East likes Bruce Lee the best; she knows everyone says it, but Bruce Lee was a badass motherfucker; his son, too.\u00a0 They were real cool.\u00a0 With an untoasted Pop-tart, East sits on top of the clothes and watches Enter the Dragon<\/em>, alone.<\/p>\n
\nHe\u2019s late.\u00a0 Two whole Bruce Lee movies late.\u00a0 East watches the popcorn bag turn in the microwave, while the credits run on the television.\u00a0 After taking a large swallow of chocolate milk, East moves toward her fish tank.\u00a0 The red and orange fish glide around unaware of her presence.\u00a0 They make large circles in the tank, ignoring the plastic submarine and the clay mermaids sitting on the rocks.\u00a0 She imagines that being a character is very much like being a fish.\u00a0 She was given food, and a daily schedule.\u00a0 Her friends and her family were already waiting for her.\u00a0 For a moment, she wishes she still had the security of knowing Roan loved her.\u00a0 She wonders, if it had been written that they\u2019d love each other right away, why she left him behind.<\/p>\n
\nThey sit together in a booth at the Left of Center, a bar that caters specifically to characters.\u00a0 East pulls her sleeves over her hands as the waitress, a woman styled like a 1950s pin-up, brings them their beers.\u00a0 The bar is crowded.\u00a0 Mondays are always crowded.\u00a0 Authors reread their weekend dribble and cut whole passages, full of characters.\u00a0 Little than half of those characters filter into the real world, looking for something to do.\u00a0 East hates being around them, but Jude takes her anyway.\u00a0 A stock character tries to buy East a drink, which amuses Jude.\u00a0 She slumps into the booth and stares straight ahead, pretending to be brain dead.\u00a0 After a few minutes, the stock character shrugs at Jude, and finds himself a flat character to dance with.\u00a0 Full characters only come to the bar because it\u2019s the best discarded description of one.\u00a0 Cheap drink and good music could cover up the crowds.\u00a0 Ladyhawke\u2019s Professional Suicide is playing and Jude asks her if she wants to dance; she\u2019s about to say yes, but a gang of stereotypes walk in and take over the dance floor.\u00a0 The music becomes frantic and the air dense.<\/p>\n
\nHe has travel magazines on his coffee table.\u00a0 East picks one up and begins reading about the fantastic beaches of Malaysia.\u00a0 She knew a boy from Malaysia, tall and athletic.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t talk much, but told funny jokes.\u00a0 She can\u2019t remember any of them now.\u00a0 He only worked at the Laundromat for a few weeks before he started school.\u00a0 Once he started, he never came back.\u00a0 They had washers and dryers on campus.\u00a0 Now the only people working aside from herself were the manager, Kim, and Paul; none of them liked to talk much.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/br>
\nOn the train ride home, she reads the articles as a way to avoid making eye contact with the zombies sitting around her.\u00a0 Even holding her breath, East can\u2019t escape the smell of iron and feces coming off their dirty, broken bodies.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t very bright, so she can get off at her stop without worrying about them following her.\u00a0 As she makes her way out, a man and his girlfriend walk in.\u00a0 East doesn\u2019t pause to check on them; instead she makes her way home.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nJENNY ORTIZ<\/strong> is a 23 year old writer living and teaching in New York. When she was a little girl, Jenny wanted to be a gun-slinging drifter, much like a Clint Eastwood character. She ended up (happily) graduating from Adelphi University with an MFA in Creative Writing and is currently working at St. John’s University and LaGuardia Community College. When she is not teaching or writing, Jenny can be found hanging out in IHOP with her friends, discussing music, video games, or Avatar: Last Airbender. When at home, she enjoys reading Haruki Murakami or listening to podcasts from the New Yorker. Follow her on Twitter: twitter.com\/jnylynn<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"