Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 29-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
An excerpt from Jean Smith’s yet-to-be-published novel Obliterating History—A Guitar-Making Mystery, Domination & Submission In A Small Town Garage
“Frank,” she says. “This is a bit awkward to bring up, but I was watching you standing at the bar and I couldn’t help but notice that you’re not six feet tall.” Having already established that he lied about his age on his profile, Veronica is now more interested in Frank’s reaction when confronted. Will he get defensive? Will he blow up and blame her for making something out of nothing?
“Is that going to be a problem for you, Veronica?” Frank asks, maintaining his composure. Proceeding, Frank knows, requires trust, the trust that he has already jeopardized by misrepresenting himself. “I mean it. Do you think you can trust me?”
“I don’t want to confuse my wanting to trust you with believing what you tell me,” Veronica says. “If there are any other things on your profile that aren’t true, now would be the time to tell me and then we can see where things stand.”
“I created my profile for the purpose of meeting women to have sex with. Plain and simple. In those moments, clicking various boxes, I made decisions based on my objective. I wasn’t expecting to meet someone like you. I wasn’t intending to meet anyone remotely like you.”
“And did you meet women and have sex?”
“Yes.”
“And what about me? What about my profile made you think I was a viable candidate for a one night stand?” Veronica asks, crossing her arms.
“Nothing,” Frank says. “You’re a whole different thing.”
“How so?”
“I met women for sex and I became frustrated with that. I mean, come on. Look where we are. Who do you think I’m meeting here?”
“I can only imagine,” says Veronica, looking over at the guys at the jukebox, aluminum beer cans accumulating between them.
to be continued
“Revolution#Pine,” from The Family Swan (Kill Rock Stars, 2002) (download):
