Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
By Alison Blake
May th &
14 15 ,th 202-
2. In My 3. One 4. The
Room Night Later Desert
Sasha
Blake =
Mom
Alison Lincoln
Blake =
Me, age
12
US Blake =
Brother,
age 13
Drew
Blake =
Dad
After Lincoln’s Game
1
Walking to the Car
• My arm around my • When kids say
brother’s neck, “Good game, Linc,”
skipping in the I answer for him.
desert night.
Cool air, but you
feel heat coming I think I feel it
up from the through my
earth like from shoes, but do
behind a I?
person’s skin.
When I
I was right: crouch to
the ground touch the
is warm. parking lot, it
glitters like
coal in the • “Alison, cars!” Mom
• I stand up, streetlight.
slowly, rolling yells, overreacting as
my eyes. “I usual (Annoying
Habit #81).
know, Mom.”
Annoying Habit #48
“G’night,
“G’night, Dan,”
Sasha,” says Mom
Dan. answers.
In the Car
Me:
“Why do you have to repeat people’s exact words when you say good-bye to them?”
Mom:
“What are you talking about?”
Mom:
“Any chance of easing up on the scrutiny, Ally?”
Me:
“Not possible.”
Dad Is Working
Desert Landscape
Our house is next to
Now, you need a lot
the desert. Two
When I was little, of credits for a lawn
months ago, a lizard
there were lawns. or else a turbine,
laid eggs in the sand
which is expensive.
by our deck.
He looks like
Dad, but
younger and
skinnier.
A “full rest”
is four beats
long, a “half
rest” is two
beats.
Right now, He knows
he’s obsessed more than
with rock
songs that have
grown-ups
pauses in about certain
them. things.
Songs with Lincoln’s Comments
“Young
“Bernadette,” by the “Foxey Lady,” by
Americans,” by
Four Tops Jimi Hendrix
David Bowie
• “This is an excellent • “Another great • “This is a lost
early pause. The voice early pause: 2 opportunity. Hell,
tapers off, and then seconds long, it would’ve been so
you’ve still got 1.5 coming 2:23 easy to draw out
seconds of total
silence, from 2:38 to
seconds into a the pause after
2:395, before the 3:19-minute-long ‘…break down and
chorus kicks back in. song. But this one cry…’ to a full
You think, Hey, the isn’t total silence; second, or 2, or
song didn’t end after we can hear Jimi even 3, but Bowie
all—but then, 26.5 breathing in the must’ve chickened
seconds later, it does background.” out for some
end.” reason.”
Dad vs. Mom
Dad Would Say
(if he were here): Mom Says:
“Wow, you’ve
really analyzed “I like ‘Bernadette’ the best of
those songs, those three.”
Linc.”
“You spend
time with any “Please don’t say ‘hell.’ ”
other kids
today?”
Now Just the Pauses…
Lincoln loops the pause in each song
so it lasts for minutes.
“Hey Dad, there’s a partial silence at the end of ‘Fly Like an Eagle,’ with
a sort of rushing sound in the background that I think is supposed to be
the wind, or maybe time rushing past!”
“Good to know, Linc,” Dad says.
What I Notice During the Looped Pauses
2
Annoying Habit #92
Mom (seeing me making slides):
“Again?”
Me:
“So?”
Mom:
“Why not try writing for a change?”
Me:
“Excuse me, this is my slide journal.”
Mom:
“I mean writing a paper.”
Me:
“Ugh! Who even uses that word?”
Mom:
“I see a lot of white. Where does the writing come in?”
Slide Slogans from School That I Fire at Mom
(just to annoy her)
“Please, Ally,
have mercy!”
“Give us the Mom says.
issues, not “A word-wall is a
But she’s
the tissues!” long haul!”
laughing.
“Add a graphic
and increase your “Charts should illuminate,
traffic!” not complicate!”
Mom Spots the Toy Horse
I keep it on my windowsill. It’s made of apricot shells.
She and Dad
got it when
they lived in After Dad and Mom found each other again, she
Pakistan. packed up her life in New York and met him
overseas.
Mom told I still play with the horse sometimes,
me once, “I never
“We looked alone in my room.
thought our back,” she
baby might says. I like to make the
Even though I’m 12.
play with prediction come true.
that horse.”
“Oh Ally, I love seeing that horse,” Mom says.
“What about this?” I Ask, and Open the Book.
Conduit: A Rock-
and-Roll Suicide, by
Jules Jones
There’s a
picture of
Mom on
page 128.
Sasha in the Picture
She’s on the street
with some people
including the rock
star (before he got
fat). The caption is:
Her hair is bright “Outside the
red and tangled. Pyramid Club,
early 1990s.”
“It feels
“I don’t like
trust my another
memories. life.”
“It’s all so
imbued
with my
own
struggles.”
“I want to know
every bad thing
you’ve done,” I say.
“Including dangerous
and embarrassing.”
I stare at her
“You can’t,”
until she looks
Mom says.
away.
What I Suddenly Understand
My job is
to make
people
uncomfort-
able.
My mother,
Sasha
Blake, is my
first victim.
I will
do it all
my life.
Lincoln Appears When I’m Half
Asleep
He clamps his Lincoln starts to
Music first, and
headset over my then the pause...
laugh, and I laugh,
ears. too.
On the display it He has a sweet,
says, “Mighty I wait and wait and goofy giggle.
Sword,” by the wait.
Frames.
There are freckles
• Old music, I
guess.
on his cheeks.
“Is that the end of
the song?” I finally “How long can one
ask. pause go?” I ask.
Caring for
your
She uses Ally SmartFan
They come from sleepover
“found @Suzette
objects. our house and 9/19
” our lives.
Eye appt
3:30
Pick Wed
up She glues Ada’s
shoes She says them Linc—therapy pie
they’re onto 2pm crust—
precious use
1/18 boards lard!
Grapes because and
Skim milk they’re casual shellacs
Earl Grey tea and them.
Drew shampoo meaningless.
Krazy Glue “But they
Peanut butter Mexico Flight
tell the
Rolaids Conf:#:XJKD78
whole story I look when she’s 77
if you not there.
really
look.”
Ways It Can Be When Dad Comes Back
Dad Comes Home Late
There’s a blanket on
Mom’s Waiting Chair
where she fell asleep.
One Night Later
3
Dad Barbecues Chicken on the Deck
Right When he
after he chews I
shaves, His hair He can hear his When he It’s a
his skin is thick still lift teeth can’t mystery
will and wavy, me onto smash sleep, he why he
squeak if unlike a his together. walks loves
you push lot of shoulders • They into the Mom so
your dads. . should be desert.
in pieces, much.
finger but they’re
across it. strong and
white.
Dad’s Laugh
It’s hard to make
Dad laugh.
Still, Dad is
He’s primordially cute, with reddish face stubble and
more
nice eyes, like a mountain climber.
handsome.
He’s
rubbing “Sure, Linc,” he says, after
his eyes. dinner. “Let’s hear some music.”
He’s on
his second
gin and
tonic.
His mouth
is smiling,
but his face
is tired.
Songs with Lincoln’s Comments
• “The pause is only 2 seconds, from 2:43 to 2:45, but it’s
basically perfect: the refrain comes back in and then the
“Long Train song goes until 3:28—even after the pause, you’ve got
Runnin’ ” by the almost another full minute of music.”
Doobie Brothers
• “Lincoln, Lincoln
before you
play
another
song, I— Lincoln • “Okay, • “In ‘Rearrange
I’d love to Linc, but Beds’ by an
know why • “ ‘ Roxanne’ has I’m asking Horse, there’s a
the pauses 2-second pause
one, that old song you—” from 3:40 to 3:42,
matter so by the Police? and unlike a lot of
much to There’s a pause songs, where you
you.” basically know
from 1:57 to Dad the song’s not
1:59—” over even though
Dad the pause makes
you wonder if
maybe it is, with
‘Rearrange Beds’
it really, truly
sounds like—”
“Stop!” Dad shouts. “Stop. Please. Forget
I asked.”
Lincoln Starts to Cry
The sunset is a
bonfire over our
heads.
4
It Starts Where Our Lawn Used to Be
Three steps down from
“Careful of snakes,” Dad
our deck, the desert
says.
surrounds us:
The whole
desert is a
pause.
“I’ve got to do better with Lincoln,”
Dad Says.
Me: Dad:
“He needs help graphing
the pauses.”
“I could do that.”
It’s like
I’ve never The panels go finding a city
walked this far. on for miles. or another
planet.
But they’re
Like angled
actually
They look evil. oily black
mending the
things.
Earth.
They remind me of
robotic ninja warriors
doing Tai Chi.
I think: I
Dad holds never want
my hand. to go back
home.
“I wish I were
already in bed,”
I say.
“Brace
yourself,” Dad
says. “It’s a
long way back.”
We Walk for Several Years
When our
house
I’ll never finally
see Mom or comes into
Lincoln view, the
again. windows
I start to are dark.
think we
won’t make
it.
Dad Points to a Snake on one of Mom’s
Sculptures
It’s coiled like
a silver rope on Dad lifts me onto “Do you think
they’re inside?”
my old puppet
theater. his shoulders. I ask.
It looks
abandoned, like
Suddenly I’m
the clubhouse
scared.
at the golf
course.
What I’m Afraid Of
That the solar panels were a time machine.
I start to cry.
What I Hear as I’m Falling Asleep
Hey You
Yeah.
Linc. hear that No.
sound?
72
Proof of the Necessity of Pauses
73
Discoveries About Pause Timing
(in Bubble Form)
Pause power
74
The Persistence of Pauses over Time
Length of song (min)
Song year
75
The End