The Writer's Life 2/26 - Within & Without

Dealing with a parent who shows signs of senility or Alzheimer's is very hard. In rare instances it is comical. Here's an excerpt, culled from real life, from the novel I will self publish early next year, tentative title Ulysses Too. The conversation may not have been exactly as it is written, but my mom actually spoke the oddity. We were speaking Italian, a tortured version of it on my part:

"I wonder if your sister’s home yet."
"Not for at least another hour."
"I thought I heard her talking just now."
"That was the people next door." We as loud to them? What must Petey and Denise think of Rige and Stooge fightin' all the time. They any different?
"You know, Frank Sinatra wants to marry me."
Vito burst into laughter.
Gotta laugh, sad as it is. Really funny sometimes.
"It’s true, I’m telling you." She was smiling herself. "He bought the house across the street. I saw him in the alley."
"He grew up in a neighborhood like this, but now he lives in palaces around the country. Why would he live on this block with all the money he has? And he’s married to a beautiful woman."
"I could swear it was him."
"Maybe you dreamed it."
"Maybe. I dreamed about your father before, poor man. He was standing right there in the doorway. It looked like he wanted to say something to me."

Last night at ten The Enemy Within premiered on NBC. It was a lively debut. It is the story of a former CIA operative who chose to betray her country to save her kidnapped daughter, a choice many would make. Three years later she is released from a maximum security prison to help catch the man responsible, who is orchestrating terrorist attacks in the USA. Although it looks like this will be an exciting series, there are drawbacks: it is yet another arc that may go on for years if the ratings are high; and it goes to obvious, annoying great pains in the cause of diversity. The villain seems to be a Russian gone rogue. I hope the creators do what those of 24 did so successfully - complete the story line at the end of the season and begin another the next. I'm not getting my hopes up. Here's the star of the show, Jennifer Carpenter, who also starred in Dexter and Limitless:

It was another glorious winter day. I basked in the brilliant sunshine in front of the Chase bank at Bay Parkway and 85th St.. My thanks to the woman who bought Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, a book on Tai Chi, and a primer on Freud's theories on dreams; and to the woman who purchased The Velvet Hours by Alyson Richman and Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris; and to the woman who selected a book in Russian based on the Japanese figures on its cover. Her son is studying the language.

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