Elliot the skeleton (Part 1)
Elliot the skeleton wanted to hang out at the coffee shop. He liked going there where people were. They were either busy and writing and reading or busy and talking. And even if they didn’t talk to him it was nice to be around. It reminded him of his human days when he was Elliot the man and he had a full head of hair, among other things. He had been a nice looking human. He was only an average looking skeleton.
When Elliot was a human and 22 years old he was living in the city of Pittsburgh, working in steel and a lady approached him and said she was a modeling agent. She told him he had great facial structure and muscle tone. She asked if he wanted to be a model at her fancy agency in New York. Elliot had been working at a steel mill at that time (hence the muscle tone) and decided maybe it would be nice to take a break. He left his work clothes behind and moved to New York with only one suitcase.
…..
When Elliot first became a skeleton, what he missed most about his old self were his fingertips: it was so hard to grasp anything without skin and feeling! And the sensation of nerves was replaced by boney pressure as he grasped a doorknob or a stick to throw to his dog friend. But what he did not miss was his perfect muscle tone. He had never been aware of it until the lady had notice. But initially, he thoughts his modeling would simply help to pay the bills. But the muscle tone (and facial symmetry, among other things) made him famous, and that eventually made him proud. As a skeleton, he wondered what his human life would have been like if he hadn’t gone to New York and instead had continued to work at the steel mill. Maybe he would have worked so long and so well doing manual labor that this skeletal afterlife would have been a welcome reprieve from physical feeling.
But he did not.
In New York life was very different. He did not find modeling very hard and the photographers liked how he posed. He did not understand how modeling was work. Pittsburgh work was much dirtier. He became very popular because he was unintentionally mysterious and cool, although it was mostly because he was quiet and his natural face posture suggested he had deep thoughts on his mind. The agent, whose name was Agnes, bought him two new suits. He wore them around New York because it seemed like that’s what he should do.
He realized soon--human Elliot, that is--that he was not so smart compared to the New York people around him. He decided he should learn how to read a bit better. He bought a few books at a nearby bookstore and read them in central park when the sun was out, or a rainy coffee shop when it was not. Sometimes girls would walk by and flirt with their eyes because he was so good looking and mysterious and he was reading a book. He was shy and if he looked up at the pretty girls he never smiled because he was nervous and didn’t know what they wanted. The girls liked that anyhow.
One day, when Elliot the man had been walking to the park after a modeling shoot, he stopped to look at a poster in a shop window. It was a big poster for King Kong the movie. He liked it although the big ape did not look like a real animal. A girl with dark curly hair came up and looked at the poster too. She said a funny thing about not wanting to see a movie in which a girl gets thrown around because girls get thrown around enough. He didn’t know what to say but he looked at her. She had dark eyes, too.
…..
Elliot the skeleton, upon death, had been buried in Long Island. He had been pretty upset about it because he had wanted to be buried in New York. He told his wife he had wanted to be buried in New York even though they had moved out to Long Island, but she died first and it was far more expensive than he had realized to be buried in New York. He hadn’t thought ahead and he kicked himself for that. He didn’t realize how expensive things would get with time. But his wife died and they buried her, and later him, next to a big tree in Long Island. Later on, when the bitterness had softened with years, he thought that was kind of nice. Sometimes life gives gifts.
Back in Pittsburgh, before the modeling lady took Elliot to New York, Elliot had only just started to think about the longness of life. What Elliot really wanted, if he had been able to put words to it, was a small family and a woodworking shop. He had always loved working with wood as a kid, but his father needed him in the steel mill. Somewhere in Elliot, he knew what he wanted, but human Elliot never really sorted it out, because the thought was just a feeling. He felt it strongly, but couldn’t figure out what it meant.
…..
The girl by the movie poster did not become Elliot’s wife. He sometimes wished she had, however, and he knew it and later on, during a bad fight, his wife knew it too. The girl by the poster who was name María Elena and Elliot thought that was a nice name and had never met anyone with that name before or after he met her. It was a Tuesday when they first talked to each other in front of the poster.
