We're at our worst when it's from our lips.

Science - 327 Words.

by: Aaron Dethrage

I’m sure there’s some kind of science to it all, mixing actions with words and impeccable reactions to curveball questions into some kind of perfect performance. These carefully executed scenes then forming some kind of alliance that can sway the stray thoughts of the women that would just otherwise pass me by.

It’s a lot like chemistry, I’m sure, delicately adding false glimpses of foreign traits that she desires, as if dripping vibrantly-hued drops from a pipette into some wildly unstable compound that seethes anxiously in a heated glass beaker. Every drop hanging maddeningly on the end of the tube. Will this work... or is the whole damned thing going to explode? The suspense! The suspense!

(Boom.)

* * * * * * * * * *

A second glass of Merlot is artfully entangled in my fingers, making too many words feel far too loose on my slowly numbing lips, however, she is laughing, so the alarms remain silent and the sipping-babbling-laughing cycle continues undisturbed.

There’s a band in the back corner, a jazz trio. Under the soft stage lighting sits a pianist at a spotless, black baby grand, his fingers sliding effortlessly across the perfect ivory keys. He is filling the restaurant with a variety of sultry chords that require numbers on numbers to notate for replication. There’s also an older gentleman at a drum kit. He is brushing across the top of his snare drum, eyes closed, head turning in time. He taps a foundational beat on the kick drum, using the kind of footsteps that children use as they sneak to and fro in hardwood houses. The head of the band is a trumpeter whose cup mute has transformed old Real Book melodies into poetic and persuading phrases. Everyone loves him, knows him, is transfixed by him.

There’s not really much difference between them and me, our improvised acts, attempts at swaying whatever ears are listening. However, it is growing harder to sway hers when they undisputedly have mine.

From the Hips - Cursive