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Imaginary Dinner Party, Part Eighteen

By Lynn Crawford
“Everything dies, that’s a fact. But everything that dies one day comes back”
–Bruce Springsteen, Atlantic City

“The world is not what it seems—but it isn’t anything else, either.”
–Raymond Queneau

Feeding my beloved, ailing great aunt applesauce, yogurt, cashews, and pitted dates, all foods she craves and are good for her condition. Least amounts are of applesauce, just a teaspoon full stirred into her whole milk vanilla yogurt, with other ingredients. She always ate specifically, which might account for her longevity. Yes, she is ailing (at her age most people are not still living) but her bones are strong, her eyes sparkle, and she, of anyone in our family, retains the most information about my past.

Just yesterday she said, “I remember that day we saw Karl sailing his boat. That white oxford shirt, the khaki Bermuda shorts, the shot of hair on his forehead, his smile, and his speed and assurance. Then, remember, we ran into him that very next day when I got a flat in my bike tire. He knew just what to do and I rode away, leaving you two who had already begun a kind of conversation to continue. I knew things would brew into something more and it did.”

I will thank and love that bike and its tire forever. This aunt, and Karl, together and separately, are the reason I can live my life. Without them I would wake up and look at the sky and possibly not move all day except to drink water, eat small amounts of whatever foods or liquids I have stored and evacuate my bladder and bowels. This is not me, the woman who lives in the trees, but my attempt  to step outside of that “me” and invent a “me” as a character so I can get some distance—actually perspective might be a more accurate word—on myself, my condition and circumstances, and imagine other ones, then safely turn back to my own. It is a comfortable space for me to occupy. Also, to be honest, stimulating for my brain, body, and heart in so many ways, and I do not know how that came to be or what I must do to keep hold of those benefits, but I sense there is a reason, even logic, and I do respect that. Respect over skepticism. In this case at least.


Frankenstein [The Modern Prometheus]
By Mary Shelley
Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, 1818
Fiction
Wuthering Heights
By Emily Brontë
[Ellis Bell]
Thomas Cautley Newby, 1847
Fiction

Endnotes

1. Bernhard, Thomas, Yes, originally published in German in 1978 and translated into English by Ewald Osers, 1992.


Imaginary Dinner Party is a literary series by Lynn Crawford that explores “what happens when books join forces.” Read the archive:

Part One, Under Stories (spring 2021)
Part Two, Heal the People (summer 2021)
Part Three, Think Like a Detective (fall 2021)
Part Four, Possession (winter 2022)
Part Five, Forms of Engagement (spring 2022)
Part Six, Conversations (summer 2022)
Part Seven (fall 2022)
Part Eight (winter 2023)
Part Nine (spring 2023)
Part Ten (summer 2023)
Part Eleven (fall 2023)
Part Twelve (winter 2024)
Part Thirteen (spring 2024)
Part Fourteen (summer 2024)
Part Fifteen (fall 2024)
Part Sixteen (winter 2025)
Part Seventeen (spring 2025)

Lynn Crawford’s books include Simply Separate People (2002), Fortification Resort (2005), Shankus & Kitto: A Saga (2016), and Paula Regossy (2020). She is currently working on her next novel, Closely Touched Things. An excerpt from that book, Take Away From the Total, was published in issue no. one of Three Fold.



Founded in 2020, Three Fold is an independent quarterly based in Detroit that presents exploratory points of view on arts, culture, and society in addition to original works in various media, including visual art, literature, film and the performing arts. We solicit and commission contributions from artists, writers, and activists around the world. Three Fold is a publication of Trinosophes Projects, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization located in the historic Eastern Market district in downtown Detroit. Click here to check out Three Fold’s events page and view a schedule of the publication’s on-site activities.

Three Fold recognizes, supports, and advocates for the sovereignty of Michigan’s twelve federally-recognized Indian nations, for historic Indigenous communities in Michigan, for Indigenous individuals and communities who live here now, and for those who were forcibly removed from their Homelands. We operate on occupied territories called Waawiiyaataanong, named by the Anishinaabeg and including the Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe (Chippewa), Odawa (Ottawa), and Bodewatomi (Potawatomi) peoples. We hold to commit to Indigenous communities in Waawiiyaataanong, their elders, both past and present, and future generations.