conversation

THOMAS: What color is this one?
JESSA: I don’t know; I can’t see it.
THOMAS: Here, wait for the light. There you go. Well?
JESSA: Um . . . either orange or pink
THOMAS: I think it’s red
JESSA: Nah, it’s either pink or orange. Promise.
THOMAS: Well, we’ll know in a minute.
There is a moment of silence as Thomas chews.
THOMAS: Orange
JESSA: I told ya
THOMAS: Okay, what about this one?
JESSA: Pink . . . white . . . yellow
THOMAS: Yellow
JESSA: Yeah, yellow
THOMAS: Next one?
JESSA: That’s red
THOMAS: I think it’s orange
JESSA: You think all of them are orange. It’s too dark for orange or pink
THOMAS: It’s not pink
JESSA: I know. I said it wasn’t
THOMAS: Well it’s orange
Again, there is silence to allow Thomas to chew.
THOMAS: It’s pink
JESSA: It’s not pink!!
THOMAS: What does pink taste like?
JESSA: The red smells hot
THOMAS: That’s from the white I just ate
JESSA: No, it doesn’t smell minty. It smells cinnamony
THOMAS: It’s orange
JESSA: You just said it was pink. I’m telling you, it was red
THOMAS: No, it was orange
JESSA: The orange are nasty
THOMAS: They’re okay
JESSA: No, they’re not
THOMAS: Okay, what about this one?
JESSA: White?
THOMAS: Either yellow or white
JESSA: It’s yellow
THOMAS: Yeah
THEIR STEPFATHER: You guys, that is the most mindless conversation I’ve ever heard
Thomas and Jessa are silent a moment.
THOMAS: Soo . . . what about this one?

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Did you figure out what they (um, we) were talking about. This piece is supposed to be vague and abstract. It involved me little brothe and I, riding in the backseat of the car on the way home from church at night. He had a handful of chicklet gum and we were trying to guess what color each one was. This conversation, transcribed immediately afterwards, entertained us for a good twenty minutes. Our stepfather thought we were idiots.

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