CC16: Northeastern Miracle

'Cigarette!' commanded Emer, suddenly there in my face like on our wedding day but with less of the white. When I passed the requested bundle of sticks to her, she appeared to come over all guilty for a bit about her snappy demand, so she pouted and puppy-dogged before smiling a vaguely warm smile. The white of our wedding began to seep into the moment. I swear, it was a Northeastern miracle to behold. A smile. I sent one back and also blew a little kiss at her for measurement. The smiles slowly retreated after this and the white went grey. We weren't used to being publicly affectionate anymore so the slightest gesture of its kind might have felt out of current sync.

'Come over here and join us,' she said.

It dawned on me that I'd been standing alone like a single-filer since John Carroll ran off to put the fire out.

'Okay, I may as well,' I said.

I put on my best friendly smile of acknowledgement as I faced Paidi and Serena Hearty in a show of courage for my wife. There was little movement or acknowledgement from them, save for some nodding heads, though Serena did soon pipe up.

'It's been ages since I last saw you. What have you been up to?'
'Hey, Serena. Haven't been up to much. Just getting by. By and by.'

I needed to be careful with this response. Some truth was required, I felt, but I didn't want to be so frank as to cause embarrassment for Emer (and myself, of course). In all honesty, I was unemployed, and laying about.

'Things are slow at the moment,' I said. 'But I'm hoping to get back into the thick of things very soon.'
'All the workers have problems, these days. I feel terrible about it. And the rich on top, fucking lording it over everyone. They caused it all. The collapse of economies was a dead cert long ago. It was in Marx. He fucking predicted this shit. Division only emerges through emerging class systems. And they only emerge out of monopoly.'

She felt terrible about it.

That was rich coming from that rich bitch.