Seen Reading by Julie Wilson Read Free Book Online

1994)
    p 137

Grace
    The minister was the first redhead the boy had ever seen naked, his body hair glowing in the morning sun, shocking the lake’s surface, afloat beside the boy’s mother, the first woman he’d ever seen naked and swimming with their minister.
    READER
    Caucasian male, early 50s, with long face, wavy, grey hair parted down the middle, “I Am Salman Rushdie” button pinned on North Face jacket, wearing red jeans and white sneakers.

    The God Delusion
    Richard Dawkins
    (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008)
    p 150

Creature Feature
    The longest she’d ever spent in a car was at the drive-in watching a triple creature feature with her immobilized father who waited out a pinched nerve, a watery monster sliding across the screen, while a one-hundred-and-twenty-pound buck sat on ice under the tarp of their hitched trailer.
    READER
    Caucasian male, late 20s, very tall, wearing blue knit cap, light blue hoodie, and green jacket with red-and-white cross-stitching on the arms.

    Into the Wild
    Jon Krakauer
    (Anchor, 1997)
    p 174

The more things strayed, the more they stayed the strange.

Girlfriends
    She looks forward to the morning commute. She’ll ride the subway to the end of the line and take two buses to the warehouse where she’ll take her place on the line next to Deb, a lifer married to Brad who’s always on the road, and Marlene, a late 40s pre-op transsexual who keeps her hair in a net because it gets frizzy in the humidity.
    The snack boxes make their way toward them, the first row already complete: gum, lozenges, and mints. She readies her stock and fans them into place in the second and third row: a pack each of Peek Freans, Lemon Crisp, Digestives, Arrowroot, Fruit Creme, Nice, Shortcake, and two packs each of Dad’s Oatmeal and Oreo cookies.
    She notices one of the Dad’s cookies has a tear in the wrapper. Once the boxes have moved down the line, she rips the package open, popping a cookie in her mouth whole. She wonders if she and Marlene could be friends, if Marlene wants friends. Cheeks full, she doesn’t swallow, and waits for Marlene to stop fussing with her net and look her way so she can test the waters by opening wide.
    READER
    Caucasian female, late 30s, with short, spiky blond hair, wearing baggy jeans, brown sneakers, and grey hoodie under secondhand orange, blue, and yellow ski vest.

    We Need to Talk About Kevin
    Lionel Shriver
    (Harper Perennial, 2006)
    p 56

The Curious Collector
    When her son was young, he was a collector of curious objects. While her daughter combed the beach for long, slender cone shells and heart-shaped rocks, he was drawn to the oddities of imperfect fruit and vegetables — samples of which he kept in foul-smelling plastic bins she discovered during her weekly vacuum — skinned tennis balls, and placemats from the local Chinese restaurant signed and dated by the wait staff.
    One morning, she began to wonder if he’d moved on to yet another hobby when she came across a dragonfly that had died on their back deck. A small wooden cross had been erected beside its body. Before she could remove it, her son pushed past her, his Polaroid camera poised. He took the picture, pulling the tab and counting down. “I love the light of early dawn,” he said, kicking the dragonfly between the wooden slats.
    READER
    Caucasian female, early 60s, with short blond hair, wearing glasses, tan coat, white collared shirt, and pale green silk scarf.

    The Sweet Edge
    Alison Pick
    (Raincoast Books, 2005)
    p 153

Sailor
    They walk together down the beach. She could be as young as ten, he thinks, certainly no older than thirteen, which would be a six-year age difference. He flattens his part and tells her about life on a boat. The other vacationers flap the sand out of their blankets, heading up for dinner. He asks if she’s in a hurry. Does she have to be somewhere?
    He can’t look away from her sea-green eyes, her