fictions large and small mostly borrowed images intended to support rather illustrate a short story

1. The line at the grocery store was too long for that time of day, especially on a non-holiday

2. That allowed plenty of time to survey others around him.

3. Standing behind a woman who had only a six pack of diet coke and a bottle of aspirin, he could see the shopping list in her hand and that those were the only two things on her list that she had crossed off. He was close enough to make out a telephone number at the bottom of the paper.

4. But that had also been crossed off as if it were an accident to write it down in the first place.

5. He could tell from this vantage point that her plastic surgeon made rather a nice living for himself. Her lips were slightly bulbous as if the injections were recent. As the woman ask for a bag of ice at the check out stand, he could see she had a little trouble speaking, as if her lips had a slightly different agenda than she did. She looked into the glass at the counter and adjusted her hair.

6. He pulled out his cell phone and sent a text: I was just thinking of all the people throughout the course of history that lived without ever knowing what they looked like.

7. It seems interesting to think of how we might behave differently if we had no idea what we looked like.

8. Glancing over at a of copy of People magazine, he started a point by point comparison between the woman ahead of him and Angelina Jolie. Big lips – Check High cheek bones – check Large round eyes – check

9. a text came back: Well what’s more important: Knowing what we look like or knowing how we're perceived?

10. Thin straight nose – check

11. He keyed in: i guess i was thinking more about how not knowing what you looked like would cause you to rely solely upon the feedback from how others perceive you. so it seems like it would really change things. if you didn't know that you were pretty or ugly or had a big nose or whatever. Sharp jaw – check

12. His phone buzzed again: You would have to develop some kind of backwards sonar. So that instead of using it to know the shape of your surroundings, you would use it to know the shape of yourself.

13. Large high breasts – check What is she even going to do with four bags of ice? he thought. Slim waist – check

14. He typed: yes. or, maybe you wouldn't even care. maybe you would look like whatever you thought you looked like, and you would act accordingly.

15. That will be $3.56 sir. He picked up the loaf of bread and the juice and aimed them at the opening in his backpack. When he reached into his pocket for the change, sawdust came out with the coins and dusted the counter as he paid the young man at the register.

16. The phone buzzed again: so, what we're talking about is a kind of blindness overcome by imagination and shaped by the responses of those around us? A second buzz came immediately: and please remember the milk this time.

17. Something like that he keyed in. of course I have the milk. He shoved the phone in his pocket and zipped up the pack as he headed back towards the dairy case.