A Few Thousand Pennies
“I want to take you to the bank today.”
“Okay.”
“You should turn in that coffee can full of change.”
“Why?”
“There’s probably a hundred bucks in there.”
“It won’t make a difference.”
“It’s a start.”
“Barely.”
“Don’t get angry.”
“I’m not. Let’s go later, though.”
“We can’t, it’s Saturday. Banks close early.”
“Not until lunch. It won’t matter, anyway.”
“It might. We can’t wait much longer.”
“It will be fine.”
“How much more do you think we’ll need?”
“A few hundred. Don’t worry. I’ll get it.”
“When?”
“Soon. You look incredible this morning.”
“Stop.”
“Stop what?”
“Kissing me like that.”
“Like this?”
*****
“Do you think the neighbors listen to us make love?”
“What?”
“We hear everything going on over there.”
“So what if they do?”
“I don’t want them to hear.”
“Nothing to be embarrassed of.”
“That’s not it. What kind of a place has such thin walls?”
“Don’t start.”
“Okay! Jesus what a look.”
“Whatever”
“Do you have any cigarettes left?”
“What’s the big deal anyway?”
“Thanks. The big deal about what?”
“About them hearing us.”
“It’s private.”
“I thought you’d be used to people hearing you.”
“Why would you think something like that?”
“You grew up in the city. You must have heard people fucking all the time.”
“I hate it when you call it that.”
“You shouldn’t worry. They probably just turn on some music and ignore us.”
“I didn’t hear any music. Anyway, I listen to them all the time.”
“Really?”
“Sure.”
“Are they wild or anything?”
“I don’t know. It’s mostly moaning.”
“Do you get, you know?”
“I’m not listening to them for that.”
“Figures.”
“It always has to be a porno with you doesn’t it?”
“Whatever.”
“Don’t be an asshole. I just listen to see if I can hear what kind of people they are by the way they make
love.”
“I thought it was just moaning.”
“It is. But I can hear some things. Like she doesn’t take her time, you know, she gets right into it as loud as
she can. But he doesn’t make a sound until the end.”
“Huh.”
“I think she is putting on a show for him because she’s afraid he doesn’t really like being with her. Then I
wonder if he just pretends to not be into it just so she’ll put on a big show. It’s kind of amazing. How much
people can manipulate each other without saying anything.”
“Very scientific.”
“You don’t have to be sarcastic.”
“I still don’t see what the big deal is if they hear us.”
“You know when I was in high school, my mother caught me with a boy. She didn’t walk in or anything.
She just knocked lightly on the door and said, ‘I can hear all of your secrets.’”
“Oh yeah.”
“That’s what the big deal is. I don’t care if they hear. But what if they listen to us and know how something
about us we don’t.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Maybe. But when you’re in something you can’t really see it even if everyone else can. We think our
thoughts and lives are secret, but really they’re only a secret to ourselves. Think about it. What if they
know you really don’t love me when I don’t? What if I really don’t love you and only think I do? What if
they are the only people that know?”
“I love you. You love me. Not to worry.”
“I’m just saying. It’s amazing how much you don’t know about your own life.”
“I know everything I need to.”
“Then what if they know I can’t go through with it?”
“Forget it, will you? You are the one who said it was what you wanted. Let’s go to the bank like you said.”
“No. There isn’t enough in there to bother, you were right.”
*
“What’s got you so quiet?”
*
“Nothing.”
“It will work out.”
“I know. I was just thinking.”
“About what?”
“There has to be a few thousand pennies in there.”
*