My New Friend
He sat across from me at the airport. Something about him seemed pathetic but in a nice way. I observed this before I noticed the splint on his nose. It was broken. He asked me about the book I was reading. The Orchard Keeper. He saw the McCarthy name, and immediately, I was okay with this new friend.
For context, ‘new’ isn’t really my thing; I have enough ‘old’ that I greatly cherish.
He asked questions for which he already had the answer. “Is it a hard read?” Yeah, every McCarthy is, and he knew this because he’d attempted ‘Blood Meridian’. “Isn’t The Orchard Keeper his first book?”. “I’m not sure, I thought Outer Dark was his first”, I replied. A quick Google search told me I was wrong. Like I said, he already knew the answers to his questions.
Later, after I had professionally weaseled my way out of the conversation, I realized my attention was lost. I eavesdropped and stared at the words on the page. My new friend was talking to the kid who sat next to him. Both in their young twenties. They reeked of finance (pleated khakis and golf polos). The kid who sat next to him was more put together (his nose wasn’t broken), and I recall he’d been doing an interview of sorts on his laptop when I arrived, which is an admirable faux pas in my book. I mean fuck my peace and quiet, this man needs a job!
Anyway, these kids are talking, and I’m listening while pretending to read:
The Kid says, “How is it feeling?”
My new friend replies, “It’s all good now.”
“Did it hurt? It made such a loud noise.”
“I didn’t even realize what had happened. Were you there?”
“Yeah, I was the one who handed you the rag. Honestly, we all thought the door was closed, too.”
Did you get it? The story? All of the context and details? There were probably a few more names in there. Maybe mention of surgery. But these 5 lines of back and forth in the wild were all I needed.
McCarthy could never.
BONUS: Shout out to ChatGPT for rewriting this excerpt as if written by Cormac himself:
The kid looked at him. How’s it feel.
It’s fine now.
You didn’t cry out. Made a hell of a sound.
Didn’t know what’d happened. You see it?
I was there. I gave you the rag.
He nodded.
We all thought the door was shut.
The man said nothing.
FIN
PC