Microstory 248: Perspective Twenty-Three

This is an experimental Perspectives microstory. The introduction can be found in Microstory 225. More to follow.

Did you hear about the woman down the block? The one who lives in the house they clearly can’t afford? I heard her husband covered up a rape at work and he’s about to go to prison. At least that’s what I heard. It’s just terrible. I don’t like to gossip of course, but that’s just such a sad story. I mean, how do you marry someone and not know what kind of man he is. My word. My friend had this friend in college who went to court claiming that her roommate’s brother’s friend raped her, but then while in court, they found out she had raped somebody. True story, I swear it. At least that’s what I heard. This is the same friend�"my friend, not the friend of my friend�"whose daughter sat on a toilet at a gas station and got pregnant. And AIDS. I think. It was something like that. Somebody sat on a toilet and then something happened, but I don’t like to gossip. I know this girl at work who gossips all the time, just nonstop. She’s a hoot and a half, though; her stories always make me laugh. She was telling me about this one time she found a dead cricket in her sauce. Well, I suppose that’s better than a live cricket, she tells me. What a riot. Anyway, she tries to complain, but ya know she was at a Chinese restaurant, and those Chinese, you know? So she complains but they try to pass it off as a delicacy. Can you believe that? A delicacy! She wasn’t fallin’ for it, of course. I don’t remember what came of it, but it was really funny. Those Chinese people, though. I’m not racist, but you have to be careful. I used to get my nails done on Eighth, but I had to stop going there because it was owned by a Chinese family. Well, I think they may have been Vietnamese or whatever. But they were so rough with my fingers, and they are just criminals there. The prices were too damn high! The last time I went there, I refused to pay that woman for her shoddy job. I walked right out and said they could charge it to the dust and let the rain settle it. They were shouting at me in their weird language, but I just kept walking. What are they gonna do, kill my first born daughter? And that’s not racist, because they really do that. I saw a documentary on it once. Well, I didn’t really watch it. I saw a commercial for it, and my boyfriend at the time said he watched it. I can’t for the life of me remember why I dated him, though. He and his cousin lost their virginity to each other. At least that’s what I heard.