“Porcelain Camel”
Jul 08, 2019There’s a white porcelain camel sitting on top of the fireplace. Its body is a low-res polygon. It can’t hold much water in its humps. It is an inanimate object, after all.
The camel stares out toward the reception area of the posh doctors’ office. The receptionists whisper to each other as patients check in and make their way to expensive leather couches and grey twill chairs.
He’s standing, body turned to the window, but head turned back staring at the camel. He returns his gaze to the world outside. The sound of sirens and cars honking and jackhammers hammering. The office is on the twentieth floor and he watches people walking around on the roofs of their apartment complexes. He looks through windows into expensive apartments and wonders how much do the residents pay to live this close to Central Park. His brain is foggy, as it is most days, and he wonders how long it would take from the time he walked across the room to grab the porcelain camel, to smashing it against the window, creating enough of a crack that he could kick in, and drop his body out the opening, and smashing on the ground below. Boy, lots of people would have a story to tell when they got home from what would be an even more annoying rush hour than usual.
His girlfriend, and her doctor appear from the hallway, smiling and whispering things that he can’t hear. The doctor doesn’t look like a doctor, just a fashionable middle-aged lady wearing a stethoscope around her neck. It’s the new, chic pearl necklace. They embrace lightly and his girlfriend looks over at him with the You Ready? expression. And he is ready. He is ready for ice cream. It isn’t as hot a day as it has been lately, but he has gotten used to eating ice cream every day. Maybe that’s why his brain is foggy right now.
He stands up and mouths goodbye to the camel. The camel just stares after them as they leave.