Flying Things

Diane Williams

First published in Salt Hill 30 (2013).

The Bucky’s waitress says she is happy to have back that amorous part of her life and that this makes her less of a Plainer Jane.

And, with an old man named Humphrey, she says she’s made a pretty bargain.

Today she said, “I’ll take some of this, too!” and she took a gulp of my water.

And we enjoy laughing about the poor hot beverages she serves and about our divorced husbands. Although my partner in marriage, Ray, was nobody to laugh about—Ellie always says she’ll clear the decks to ignore that.

The surrogate judge I work for, Maxine Joe, was also run over and she was really flattened, but she is doing so much better. She is the kind of gold you see in a museum and she is extremely dedicated and she works hard.

Maxine took papers out of my hands and she said, “Can you postpone?” She meant my trip to Hot Springs.

It was more of a case of my thinking, Don’t I get a kiss?

It was a warmish day—mild. There were flies in the office. I got down on my knees to chase one.

The life of a fly....Does a fly reminisce about a good time?—I’ll do that again tomorrow. It had been sitting on my hand for a moment. Does it think to itself, I’ll go to a different room and sit on a sleeve, or a desk, or a wall? I’ll hook onto something and get attached there long enough to get killed!

Well, there’s still lust in me. I had noticed today a man running in the park, no shirt, no socks. He did have shorts on. Maxine had brought in hyacinths and she said she had met a new man. It strikes me how, uh, how everyone is looking for a partner, thinking, What now?

Then this woman who is married—in our office—can now approach Hugh the office manager. It is remarkable—every person!—even this young Australian boy is starting to have an interest in Dyana.

But life, I find, isn’t quite like that.

Diane Williams is the author of nine books of fiction, including her latest book, The Collected Stories of Diane Williams, published by Soho Press. She is also the founder and editor of the distinguished literary annual NOON. She lives in New York City.