Copyright © 2014 by Ralph Robert Moore.

Return to lately 2014.

Let Me Breathe Tomorrow (or something like that).

This will be the opening paragraph to the story. I haven't decided what to use yet, but it'll definitely be something quirky, that draws you in, like, Hey, what the fuck is this guy talking about? Let's see, let me think. Grandma woke up choking from the dime that had appeared in her mouth. I don't know. Tommy couldn't visit the penguins that Tuesday, because Grandma woke up with a dime in her mouth. Bingo! But in addition to being quirky, it'll also be sensitive, like my title. You'll read the title and think, Wow, this is a sensitive guy talking. His title is so evocative! Maybe like, Let Me Breathe Her Tomorrow. I like that! So right away you're thinking, Who is this "her" bitch?

So we have:

Let Me Breathe Her Tomorrow (title)

First sentence: Tommy couldn't visit the penguins that Thursday, because Grandma woke up with a dime in her mouth.

Okay. Don't get stalled now. What's the second sentence?

I probably don't want to explain why Grandma has a dime in her mouth, because that would make it too mundane. Keep it poetic.

It was the smallest amount of money ever to appear in Grandma's mouth. Usually, in the morning, she'd find paper money sticking to her dentures. I don't know. Paper money inside her mouth, sticking to her dentures. Paper in her mouth, like dentures celebrating our most famous American presidents. Celebrating in green and white, our most famous dead American presidents. Does 'paper money' sound kind of odd? Paper currency? I'm going to fix a drink.

Tommy couldn't visit the penguins that Thursday, because Grandma woke up with a dime in her mouth. It was the smallest amount of money ever to appear in Grandma's mouth. Usually, in the morning, she'd find five or ten dollars bills in her mouth, wrapped around her tongue. A five or ten dollar bill, doing what? A five or ten dollar bill, stuck to the roof of her mouth. She'd carefully. She'd lift her tongue, carefully sliding the bill forward and down, so she could pull it out between her dentures. I like that touch. The tongue lifting, the sliding across the red ceiling of her mouth , the dentures. Pulling money out of her mouth like it was a long hair.

God knows she could use the money. Sometimes she'd question why money would always appear in her mouth when she woke. At first she wondered why, each morning, there would be money in her mouth, but because it happened each morning. But because it kept happening, with no ill effect. But because it kept happening each morning, and the money was so helpful, it wasn't long before she simply accepted that her life had changed. Her life had changed for the better. Finally. Probably don't need 'finally.'

Okay, wait a minute. If Grandma keeps waking up with money in her mouth, why can't she take Tommy to see the penguins?

Fuck!

Tommy was able to visit the penguins after all that Thursday, because Grandma woke up with a dime in her mouth.

Arggh!

How would a fucking dime make a difference?

Knocking at the front door to the apartment. Now I have to stop typing until I hear the shoes go away. Do they have an ear against the door?

Tommy was able to visit the penguins after all that Thursday, because Grandma woke up with a ten dollar bill in her mouth. Twenty dollar bill.

Tommy was able to visit the penguins after all that Thursday, because Grandma woke up with a hundred dollar bill in her mouth.

It was the largest amount of money ever to appear in Grandma's mouth. Usually, in the morning, a dime or a quarter would be resting against a back molar, like a loose tooth. But never before any paper currency.

She lifted her tongue, carefully sliding the bill forward and down, so she could pull it out between her dentures, see what it was.

A hundred dollars!

God knows she could use the money. At first she wondered why, each morning, there would be money in her mouth, but because it kept happening when she woke, and the money was so helpful, it wasn't long before she simply accepted that her life had changed for the better. And who really wants to question why their life has suddenly changed for the better?

"The power of Let Me Breathe Her Tomorrow is in how it magically evokes. Let Me Breathe Her Tomorrow powerfully evokes a world in which the magical appearance of money transforms lives both old and young in a scathing criticism of modern political economics, where massive gray corporations try to prevent us from seeing the black and white of contemporary wealth distribution, as symbolized by the innocent duo-toned penguins frolicking at a zoo. I wept."

The phone is buzzing. Ignoring it.

Okay, time to bring in Tommy.

"Tommy?" His grandma finished wiping her warm spit off the hundred dollar bill she had pulled out of her mouth. "Do you still want to see the penguins?"

Tommy stood erect in his thrift store clothes. "Well, yeah! But I thought we couldn't afford it, Grandma!"

The old woman showed him the hundred dollar bill in her wrinkled fingers. "And we got enough money left over to have a decent lunch at the zoo's restaurant afterwards!"

Tommy's young eyebrows shot up on his forehead. "Does that mean I can get French fries?"

The old lady chuckled. She had had a hard life. Never knew her father. Had to work in quality control at a zipper factory at the age of twelve. Got carpal tunnel disease in her right hand. Sold into white slavery at the age of fourteen. A chance to see the world, but at a terrible price.

"Better believe it, boy!"

The shoes came back, louder with each approaching step. A series of knocks against the front door.

Silence, stillness inside the apartment.

A paper slipped under the door. Like they do in movies.