Meetinghouse

Quakers had these long meeting houses in colonial times. I think they got them from the long houses the Lenape used to meet in and use. 

I was never raised in anything like the Quakers but we had a lot of group meetings and group sessions growing up.

For my friends my house was never a natural meeting place. It was like a way point for them. 

It would be hard to picture them all in the same room. 

Friends. I don't really have any. Acquaintances, colleagues, people who live in my head rent free. Pests.

I've told you about Stive and Moe and Doy and fucking Gary and ReadyI'm and Kairos and the others who I would never let into my house.

The prophetess stayed for a few days but I hid her when anyone came over, or I hid them. When fucking Gary came over, I hid myself. 

No more hiding.

ReadyI'm came by first and I told him.

He told me about what was going on with him first. Skull had been following him for sure, and me. 

I told him I didn't want to hear it. Skull wasn't even someone I wanted to think about. I don't need him.

-Do you know how much you can get for aluminum cans? 

-What?

-He said no one can take cans out the park, not without his permission. 

-Look, I said, I want to have, like, a meeting.

-I told my boy, don't put anything in it, ReadyI'm went on. He wasn't listening. I don't care, you got two dollars or two hundred dollars in your pocket. 

-Just leave it alone, I told him, trying to make eye contact. He's going to kill you. 

It was hard to get him to focus on what you wanted but he would be ready when he did. 

Don't be ready. 

What would the purpose of a meeting be? 

They wanted to have a meeting at work, on Friday afternoon. I know that can't be good. I thought I was doing well. No one really talked to me. 

The therapist said she could only help me as much as I wanted help. She wasn't an editor. 

If I get fired I won't have to see her again, but there's someone else. 

They tell me what to do. 

No one tells me what to do. They don't have to.

-I need to talk to everyone, I told ReadyI'm, and tell them what to do. It's not working anymore. Not working. 

-Are you even listening? ReadyI'm asked. 

-Yes. Listen. Forget the cans.

-Not that, ReadyI'm said, annoyed. 

-I got halfway back from the park and he ran over, I'm just joking, I'm just joking.

Something probably happened before. He said he was mistaken for someone else and almost got punched in the mouth. 

But he mistakes himself for someone else, that's how he gets punched in the mouth. He can bounce right back up. 

-Listen are you ready? I finally asked him. 

He stopped to focus. 

-For what?

-What I was just talking about, man. A meeting. 

-Like an intervention? 

-An intervention for what?

ReadyI'm stared at me. 

-You, he said. 

I'm not sick enough that I'm on the floor yet. 

-Or me. If anybody cared about me. Nobody cares about me. 

-Don't spiral. 

He did that a lot but I'd stop him. No one stopped me. It wasn't about him anyway, it was about me. And it wasn't an intervention.

-A lot of people care about you, he went on but I didn't want to listen. Like your sister. 

-Don't talk about her. I tried to stop him from talking about her because I didn't like the way he talked about her, or most women. Just stop.

-I need to talk to everyone, I said. 

-You couldn't fit them in a room. 

-Who? 

-The people who care about you. 

-If they cared about me so much I wouldn't have to try to get them all together.

-You couldn't fit them in here either. 

Another knock on the door. Loud. But ReadyI'm didn't knock. He just comes in. 

-Are you doing this meeting now?

-No.

Stive or Moe. Never one of the girls.

The knocking was insistent, I didn't like it and I didn't recognize it. 

I told ReadyI'm to look. 

It was Skull.

-Tell him nobody's home. 

-He followed you here. You brought him here.

The door rattled. There was nothing to do but open it. 

Skull burst in. He didn't really know me. 

-You're finished. 

ReadyI'm looked at me, sorry. For himself or for me. There was no taking back now. 

I'd never done it with someone watching. Someone else that is. They watch when it's done to them. They can't help that. 

I pushed Skull into ReadyI'm and they fell in together. 

I found a way to a knife and back where they were tangled. It would be hard not to know who's back to stab.

One step all the way up there. 

You already knew that. 

The way they linger and come and go aimlessly to the places they're used to, whether they belong or not, as long as they used to be there, they're like zombies.

But you're not supposed to name them in the genre. They're more like vampires anyway. Either one is already dead.