The Hitcher

Thanks so much for all the thanksgiving wishes! Back to all -- it's been a good holiday so far. Here's a new section of my novel and tomorrow I'll be back with some holiday survival tips and Christmas cocktails!

“Do you want to come over tonight? Daddy and I are watching The Hitcher on HBO. I know he’d be glad to see you.”

I didn’t have the heart to mention that he thought she wasn’t playing with a full deck since she ran around in see-through gowns as if she were in a permanent audition for the part of Ophelia and expressed a child-like wonderment at the fact people had come to buys things at our garage sale we had at the start of summer to make money for college. He’d asked Mother, “Why is she wearing a nightgown?” to which Mother told him that she thought it was a slip dress.

“What’s The Hitcher?”

“It’s this show with lots of sex and violence. This hitchhiker dude narrates a story every week where someone has a flaw that usually results in their being punished in some weird way.” It followed one of my favorite and most feared plots, that of The Monkey’s Paw, the childhood story where a man wishes on a powerful talisman an gets what he asks for but in these horrific ways. The same premise was true of Fantasy Island, a show Amber and I watched as children every Friday night after The Love Boat. Poor Tattoo always watching for the plane!

“I’d have to work late,” Angela Dawn says. “Speaking of, I’d better get back.”

“Be careful in the Chicken Van. There’s a lot of crazy drivers out there,” I say, acting as if she isn’t one of them.

“Don’t I know it,” she says.

Michelle's Spell of the Day
"At first, I didn't realize it was gonna be a character. I just thought I was gonna be doing me." Larry David

Cocktail Hour
Drinking television suggestion: Really enjoying Sex Rehab With Dr. Drew. A guilty pleasure!

Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Sunday!