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Multi-Tasking

By Victor Schwartzman

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Mary multi-tasks. She is a modern person. At work, she takes orders on the phone and while chatting with the client types the order into the computer while checking her three open windows for more. After work, she goes out with the girls for drinks. Once she had three relationships at the same time. As soon as she gets home, Mary pops a frozen dinner in the microwave, boots up, goes online, opens her email and Word, starts file sharing, brings up an all news cable channel; when the microwave beeps she gets dinner and eats while reading email, listening to the news and making comments in her favorite chat room. The dinner does not taste like much, but she is not thinking about it. The email is mostly spam, but she only glances at it, maybe missing a few interesting ones. When the chat room gets boring, she types an odd word into Google, just to see what comes up. In bed she gives herself multiple orgasms.

Mary is in group therapy.

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Victor says: “I have been writing since I was able to, and at 59 I'm finally sending my stuff out, having recovered from the many literary rejections of my teenaged years (I kept every single one, Freud could tell me why if he'd just get that damned cigar out of his mouth). Frankly, that someone other than myself will have the opportunity to read my stuff is both amazing and a little embarrassing. Normal bio stuff would add that I am married, have two kids, and work as a Human Rights Officer, but I'm not normal, so why should my bio be, and is a bio bee like a honey bee?”

Readers disturbed enough to like Victor's stuff should check out http://weaklyherald.tripod.com. The site features ten early chapters of a graphic novel about a community newspaper. Readers can download the chapters for free ‘cause no one has said they'll pay for them.