Pax Nortona – A Blog by Joel Sax
From the Land of the Lost Blunderbuss
Home - Writing - Book of Days - Jokers in The Memory
Jokers in The Memory
Posted on September 11, 2003 in Book of Days Recent
Note: This is part of a series based on exercises from A Writer’s Book of Days. It’s something of a rebellion against the Friday Five and similar tupperware content memes.
Today’s topic: I don’t remember.
I don’t remember what I was dreaming when the cell phone rang. I fished for it among the sheets, clicked on the talk button, and put it to my ears. It was Lynn, calling to tell me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I sat up, went to the computer, and logged into the CNN chat server where the speculations had already begun about who might have done it. They were talking about how one of the towers had collapsed. At this point, I ran across the street to see if Tim was watching. Just as I arrived, the second tower fell.
Memory’s a funny thing, like a Las Vegas dealer throwing out cards, some blank, some marked. I can state which deck to use and the details will fit that day. But what gets passed varies from game to game. Because I am older there seems to be more to remember about the World Trade Center than about the assassination of JFK, Martin Luther King, or Ronald Reagan. The decks for each subsequent event get larger than the one before. And yet the deck for yesterday is smaller than the one for Nine Eleven. I don’t remember going from thought to thought, from room to room as I did on that day. I saved only a few cards from each suite. And I didn’t bother to make use of the jokers.
For the rest of our lives on this day, will we ever remember anything else?
Want to participate? First either get yourself a copy of A Writer’s Book of Days by Judy Reeves or read these guidelines. Then either check in to see what the prompt for the day is or read along in the book.
Tomorrow’ topic/prompt: In a cemetery.
