Chestnut Leah

The stars that shone did not shine on Chestnut Leah.  They were for everybody else.  He was only under them because he had no other place to go.  He only had no other place to go because there was no other place he could want to be. There was as good as here.  And here was no good at all. While the world had to share its stars with Chestnut Leah he did not have to share his stars with the world.  Chestnut Leah did not have any stars.  They wereall for somebody else.  Most everything was always for somebody else.  That is with the exception of his life.  Chestnut Leah’s life was all his own.  His life was all his own because nobody else wanted it.  Chestnut Leah didn’t particularly want it either.  But there was nothing he was prepared to do about that.  And so nothing ever was.

When younger Chestnut Leah had wanted to be a firefighter.  This was before he knew that fires fought back.  Now older he waited tables.  Tables didnot fight back.  Tables just waited to be waited upon.  He did this every evening and afternoon between the hours of four and twelve central.  He did not like doing this.  He did it anyway. After waiting tables Chestnut Leah sat at another table and wrote travelbrochures and courtroom dramas.  The table was his mother’s.  It was in herkitchen.  She kept her table and her kitchen in her home.  This is also where she kept her son.  Taupe Leah took great pity on her son.  She also wondered why he wrote travel brochures and courtroom dramas.  Chestnut Leah did not wonder.  He knew exactly why this was.  His art was to live a pointless life.  And that art was best expressed in pointless writings.

His pointless work has already been explained.  The explanation was minimal.  There wasn’t much need for detail.  The details are incidental.  The details are all pointless.  Chestnut Leah stood before and spoke “May I help you?” to the man in the gabardine suit.  The man in the gabardine suit was sitting at a table to be waited. That is another pointless detail.  Another trivial incidental. But for them Chestnut Leah would have no story at all.  Such were the happenings of his histories.

If Chestnut Leah had known Paul he would have seen that the man in thegabardine suit was a spy.  He would have been careful as his bowtie was really a camera.  But Chestnut Leah did not know Paul.  He did not listen to records.  Chestnut Leah wrote travel brochures and courtroom dramas.  He waited tables. The man in the gabardine suit did not answer.  He did not move other than to breathe.  This he did loudly before softly and then not at all.  But only for a moment or two.  And then he would gasp while he stared w/o the single word or utterance mouthed.  “I know you.”  Chestnut Leah said this.  He said it to the man in the gabardine suit.  There was no one else at the table for him to talk to. Still the man did not move.  Still the man did not speak.  He stopped breathing.  “I know you, you’re one of those fellows from the future aren’t you?”

The man gasped.  He coughed.  Grabbed the silver wrapped in a napkin.  The insides dropped to the table as the napkin rose to his lips.  He waited.  Stopped breathing.  Started breathing.  He spoke. “You’ll have to excuse me . . . this air . . . I’m just not . . . used to it.”  He put the napkin down and atop the table.  “So you know about us do you . . . Mr.Chestnut Leah.”

“I’ve had my suspicions.  I saw one of you in here an hour ago.”

“Well, as someone in a position to know I can assure you there were no lessthan seven of us in here an hour ago.”

“And what position would that be?”

“Oh I hold a high level post in the Department of Contentment and Well Being.  A department that is concerned almost exclusively with you . . . Mr. Chestnut Leah.  You’re a very important man in the future.”  The man in the gabardine suit stops a moment.  “Oh and by the way, I was only feigning surprise a moment ago.  I’ve known my whole life that you would say what you just did exactly the way you just did it.”

“Then why did you . . .”

“Feign surprise? Purely for literary effect.”

Chestnut Leah stroked his chin.Chestnut Leah said.  “Pretty important man in the future huh? . . . must be the travel brochures and courtroom dramas.  I always knew they would make me famous, I always knew they would be my ticket out.”  Chestnut Leah smiled.  He had never done this before.  But it came natural enough when he tried. The man in the gabardine suit snorted.  He chuckled.  “Oh no Mr. Chestnut Leah it has nothing to do with your travel brochures or courtroom dramas.  In factit won’t be to long before you’ve given up on writing those things altogether.”  Chestnut Leah felt stunned.  He felt more incidental than could ever be usual.  Even for him.  “You’re curious . . . I know.  Let me explain how the Department of Contentment and Well Being works.  You see we find someone who is unfulfilled and disappointed w/ their lives.  Then we send them back totake a look at yours.  They come back content and full of well being.  One trip is all it ever takes.  And that . . . Mr. Chestnut Leah . . . is your contribution to the future.”

Chestnut Leah stroked his chin.  He is not smiling this time.  That too was natural enough.  “No wonder I was stiffed on the tip seven times last hour.  No point in enriching the worst life that’s ever been.”

“I see that you don’t understand it at all Mr. Leah.  I will explain it to you.Yours is not the worst life that’s ever been.  Your life’s not been so terribly awful at all.  You’ve got a place to sleep, you never go hungry and you’ve got a devoted parent who loves you.  No Mr. Chestnut Leah . . . yours is not the worst life by far . . . just the emptiest . . . just the most pointless one.”  With that theman left.  Chestnut wrapped his fallen silver.  After this encounter Chestnut Leah decided to go home and write a story about his life.  But he couldn’t do it.  I had to do it for him.  I did it honestly. I did it truthfully.  And I did it this way mainly because I do not like Chestnut Leah.  I do not like Chestnut Leah because he is not me. I have all the stars.   She gave them to me.   And though that means there are none left for him . . . I don’t so much mind.