Simple Enough

by Michael Wright

She'd been on his mind for countless days. What made him crazy was how his brain would toss up an image of her, followed by a label, like some kind of cranial slideshow, without the slightest indication of how it was going to present her on any given toss. Sometimes angel, sometimes harpie demon, sometimes this month's fold-out, sometimes an ancient crone draped in black; the images rattled through him with a relentless clatter, disturbing his sleep, disquieting his days. Of course, it was better in most ways than not thinking of her at all; he'd tried that already, the results of which were an even more constant carousel of her images. After all, it truly mirrored their relationship with its unpredictable yanks and jolts, the feeling of riding on a horrifically wild roller coaster, where even the most placid moments had a kind of static sizzling through them like the aftershocks of an electrical storm; even the afterwards of making love where the question of what was next rode above them like something undefinable on a sustaining breeze. Anyway, it was simple enough: he hated her; he loved her.

6S

Michael Wright is the Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Creative Writing at the University of Tulsa, with joint appointments in Theatre and Film Studies. He is the founder and moderator of the Fictional Characters writers collective. His books include Playwriting at Work and Play: Developmental Programs and Their Processes, Playwriting Master Class, Playwriting in Process, and the Monologues for Men by Men series, co-edited with Gary Garrison. His plays, poems, fiction, and photography have appeared in The Elvis Monologues, Scenes and Monologues for Mature Actors, Monologues from the Road, Rio Grande Review, Voces Fronterizas and the Moondance Film Festival in 2004 and 2005. His short story "Twig" was published by 5th Story Review in September 2006.