Page 28 - ADU Voice Volume 5 Issue 1
P. 28
28 Voice | Fall 2025
PROFOUND THINGS AND A FEW MORE
By Mariam Khattab
e doesn’t want to be here. Charlie can think of “Oh, this one’s wild.” She comments and points.
Hnothing else but the fact he would rather the sky
keel over and skew him adrift than be here a minute His eyes take him to the end of her index before he
longer. But what can a man do, when he’s dragged by can will them to roll. A woman wrapped in paper.
the sole of his foot? When a friend comes knocking Glued together, he reckons, to the effect of mangled
in adamant riot about fashion and groundbreaking tearing as though mauled by a bear and stitched
“this-and-that”s. When she tells him, “Oh, come on! in haste by a weeping old lady. What’s the point?
Don’t be like that,” orders him to get dressed with
no say or sway - just the direct implication he will And he gets the point. From Abigail. As if she
not see the light of day until he’s choking on the grip heard it in his quirk of brow. “It’s a criticism.
of a tie against his throat - checkered, by the way, Look at the way some parts are wet and the
for anyone who cares, which he doesn’t - and his rest are dry - how it seems like the whole
feet beg for mercy above soles made of burgundy thing is just … falling apart around her.
wood. Such is the way of being distinguished, It’s paper waste. Our poor environment.”
she believes, dearest Abigail. So, he must please.
It makes sense. Nothing champions the
It has been less than an hour. Far, far less. Not tragedy of paper waste more than a beautiful
even halfway to the mark. The clock is ticking, but woman in a wasted paper packaging.
not fast enough to blunt the neons in their assault
on the runway, which Abigail opts to describe as He notes, zoning in on another woman
adding “a superbly violent retro edge” to the show. in some carbon contraption of low-
flaming coal and fabric, that the
The women are beautiful - illustrious and elegant sway of their strides is all minute. The
strides putting kittens to shame, shame and shame models, that is, the women. This particular
again. What they wear means nothing. He woman reminds him of a soldier, if one were
knows it means something, somewhere, afflicted with some loosening of the hip. Ten-
to someone, he just isn’t that someone. hut. No at ease. That’s for them - Charlie,
He is Charlie, who has Abigail and the many other Charlies and
to lean to hear his Abigails sitting behind them in different
companion under shape and colour. An Abigail, another
postmodern beats one, not his, tells her Charlie, not him, “how
and clicks of heels profound.” She doesn’t explain, because
forged in bravery. profound is a concept that dances between meaning
and never settles except the way you want it to.
Her Charlie, he notes, is nothing like him;
in that he has a reply: “The things we do
to our energy. The consumption. The
pollution. It makes you think.”
