"We know of an ancient radiation
that haunts this member constellation-
a faintly glimmering radio station.
While Frank Sinatra sings "Stormy Weather"
the flies and spiders conspire together.
Cobwebs fall on an old skipping record...
An old man sits collecting stamps
in a room all filled with Chinese lamps.
He saves what others throw away;
he says that he'll be rich someday."
"Frank Sinatra" -Cake
Tonight I met Harper and Micah at an antique store. They walked me through the dusty aisles, showing me treasures they had found. Harper had bought a gold locket with her allowance. Micah picked up a black and white photo of a man sitting alone at a piano. He got down on his knees. "Harper- this is a picture of a man who fell in love with a girl who only loved music. And so he learned to play this piano. He practiced for hours every day, and he would play her beautiful songs on the piano when she came to visit him. He hoped that this would make her fall in love with him, but she never did. He died all alone."
Harper asked if that was a true story or not, Micah shrugged, and I looked at him with quizzled eyebrows. "Harper and I have been making up a story about everything that we see here while we were waiting for you."
"You were?!"
"Yes. That-" he said, pointing to a pair of chairs behind me, "is where the King and Queen sat. And this-" he said, picking up the black and white photo of a eight year old girl, "was taken the day before she drowned in the lake."
Harp nods at me sagely, and moves on to the next object that catches her interest, a pink crystal flower vase priced at a thousand dollars.
"Keep talking," I say, as we move to catch up with our daughter.
