Crab Orchard Review Vol. 12, No. 2, our
Crab Orchard Review Vol. 12, No. 2, our Crab Orchard Review Vol. 12, No. 2, our
4 ◆ Crab Orchard Review Sally Bellerose “He had the jumpy legs.” Mom carries her own storyline forward. “Woke us both up every night. You kids were up at dawn.” “Okay.” Jane gets off a chair that’s been dragged in from the kitchen. “Time to cut the cake. Somebody give me a present.”
Sita Bhaskar Swayamvaram The paper in Gaja’s hand was limp with perspiration. He unfolded the sheet as if to allow it to breath, as if being clutched in Gaja’s palm was suffocating the paper and choking the message it held. Surely it was important—to Madras, to Tamil Nadu, maybe even to all of India—important enough for the Chief Minister’s henchmen to have plucked Gaja off the street like he was a chicken that had escaped the coop and herded him into a police jeep to be brought to the Chief Minister’s residence. No, not the Chief Minister’s residence—he was getting carried away. Being so close to the center of power had turned his brain to mush—he’d been brought to the street where he could get a glimpse of the crowd that thronged the enclosure which housed the sycophantic Ministers seeking an audience with the Chief Minister. Gaja worried about his fate as he jostled for space in the packed line of forty-five men on the barricaded road, clutching the sheet of paper that had been thrust into his hand as he took his place in line. Just an hour ago he had been pushing his freshly-painted newly-remodeled bright-yellow cart on the road, admiring some new features added during remodeling: a small prayer niche that held pictures of God Ganesha, the elephant God after whom Gaja—short for Gajendra, the Lord of Elephants—had been named; a mirror in a red, green, and yellow frame as a prop for Gaja’s thick, black, wavy hair and soft mustache; a closed shelf under the cart for his supplies—charcoal, an orange comb, a clean cotton shirt with a frayed collar, and a pair of blue flip-flop slippers. He should have stayed close to the sidewalk, but it had been dug up for repairs. With construction debris overflowing onto the road, Gaja’s cart had encroached onto the path of the kings of the road—buses, cars and trucks. Surely his traffic offense had not been so serious that he had to be hauled before the Chief Minister? Initially he hung back in line like a shy bride, apprehensive of what a trip to the Chief Minister’s residence meant to him, but as rumors snaked their way through the line, they brought with them the same allure of a snake charmer. Crab Orchard Review ◆ 5
- Page 1: C B ORCH RD R A • R E V I E W Vol
- Page 4 and 5: Address all correspondence to: CRAB
- Page 6 and 7: Crab Orchard Review wishes to expre
- Page 9 and 10: C B ORCH RD R A • SUMMER/FALL 200
- Page 11 and 12: Mitchell L. H. Douglas Inhabit 56 J
- Page 13: Elizabeth Rees First Offering 180 S
- Page 17 and 18: Sally Bellerose Brinkmanship The fa
- Page 19: Sally Bellerose “Get us to the br
- Page 23 and 24: Sita Bhaskar not embroidered or lac
- Page 25 and 26: Sita Bhaskar the truck. At first sh
- Page 27 and 28: Sita Bhaskar Minister was in danger
- Page 29 and 30: Sita Bhaskar to each other and thru
- Page 31 and 32: Sita Bhaskar of the tent and decide
- Page 33 and 34: Christopher Ankney Churches Kutna H
- Page 35 and 36: William Baer The Gathering of the C
- Page 37 and 38: The Funeral Erinn Batykefer Little
- Page 39 and 40: of the past, which the future wears
- Page 41 and 42: Tamiko Beyer Shichi-Go-San Tokyo, N
- Page 43 and 44: Michelle Bitting Remains Out of the
- Page 45 and 46: Helen Cho “Today is Korean New Ye
- Page 47 and 48: When I finally understand Nicole Co
- Page 49 and 50: Melissa Crowe inside her for a whol
- Page 51 and 52: Chad Davidson Advent There’s a sa
- Page 53 and 54: Oliver de la Paz Now, Amador walks
- Page 55 and 56: Daniel C. Bryant (though I never he
- Page 57 and 58: Chris Gavaler Recipe for Giblets It
- Page 59 and 60: Chris Gavaler try to hand me her ph
- Page 61 and 62: Heather E. Goodman “Snapper soup
- Page 63 and 64: Heather E. Goodman “I can do it,
- Page 65 and 66: Heather E. Goodman over. Coolly, he
- Page 67 and 68: Heather E. Goodman we visited the s
- Page 69 and 70: Heather E. Goodman and in between r
4 ◆ <strong>Crab</strong> <strong>Orchard</strong> <strong>Review</strong><br />
Sally Bellerose<br />
“He had the jumpy legs.” Mom carries her own storyline forward.<br />
“Woke us both up every night. You kids were up at dawn.”<br />
“Okay.” Jane gets off a chair that’s been dragged in from the<br />
kitchen. “Time to cut the cake. Somebody give me a present.”
Change language