Patty Dann is the author of the novel, Starfish (Greenpoint Press, 2013), a sequel to her novel, Mermaids, a coming of age novel about a teenage girl which was published in 1986. In 1990, Mermaids was made into a movie of the same name, starring Cher, Winona Ryder, Bob Hoskins, and Christina Ricci.
As he comes into the large green park downtown he notices for the first time the milky red lozenge hanging low over the city. The stacks of an ancient factory complex on the far side of the Financial District poke up into it, and it seems as if it is their long-snuffed output which marbles the surface of the moon.
I’ve stopped using the local market. They sicken me. The waddlers, that’s what I call them. Clogged arteries, massive thighs, fat pudgy fingers gripping giant kebabs, swigging coke from litre sized plastic bottles, slapping their kids in public.
No one knew how to fix anything anymore. The scraps of metal hoarded by grandfathers during the Depression went unrecognized in barns and garages as potential hinges, latches, and doorknobs. Screen-less doors flapped in the wind, porches sagged, and things that broke stayed broken.
I have never been a great proponent, nor participant, of doing things for the sake of doing things under the guise that such activity is something other than it really is, and for me, at least, usually means killing time while convincing oneself whatever one happens to be doing is beneficial.
