Quit and Move Over and Shh

From the current issue of elimae...

Watching Our Reflections on TV While We Wait
Meakin Armstrong

We sat in a row on the long couch and no one's legs could reach the floor. Granddaddy took the first one the kid who no one knew and said to us "the rest of you stay put." We didn't look at each other and we didn't say anything and we noticed how strange it was to be with a lot of people in a room so quiet. Opposite the TV was off. We could see ourselves reflected on its screen and we watched our reflections like we would TV. We saw ourselves squirm and wiggle and could see the Granddaddy when he came back and took Big David who was fat. Big David was the size of three of us and when he left we had more room. Then he took Matthew who we all liked the best because he had a wooden leg and he let us touch it. Matthew couldn't run, not fast, so he leaned against something when we played. We wiggled our feet and looked at the TV and then our feet and we were on TV. We whispered Quit and Move Over and Shh. Someone had to pee and the noises grew louder and there was more room for us on the long black couch.