Thursday, June 13, 2013

Man Who Ceased to Be. 3: The Backyard

The Backyard
The next feature to fade off to oblivion from the face of Miller, corporate salesman and suburban denizen, was his mouth. This time it was an odd comment from some friends at a BBQ that triggered this virtual cancellation of his facial slit.
Mrs Miller had invited a dozen friends in their Suburban Paradise’s backyard, for their eleventh anniversary. The grill was full of sizzling sausage, pork chops, mutton chops, steaks.
A friend of his (although he was not sure if it was a friend of his or rather a friend of his wife or a mutual friend of his couple), noticed some smears on his shirt caused by the excess grease of the oil.
‘Miller,’ said this friend in a mocking tone ‘what a piggy you are, look at those stains on your shirt, I’m sure your wife won’t be too happy you load the laundry up, hahaha, look at you, that must be because of your fat lip, there’s some grease on them’ He laughed at his own joke.
To Miller’s dismay, his wife jumped at the occasion: ‘You’re right; I’ve told him his lips were fat, and it’s not only that. Have you not noticed he’s always making some disgusting noise when he eats? He always chews his mouth open, it’s positively disgusting, I hate mouth noises.’
Miller had never realized his eating manners could lead to such a fuss. But once the feeling of public humiliation had passed, he started to work on his mouth. It resulted to be an easier job than his eyebrows or his ears had been. He only had to rub it with the palm or the back of his hand to ensure its complete vanishing in a matter of days. Not even a slit was left where his two fat lips had been before. And funny enough, he could still eat (and breathe) even though there was no more opening to introduce the food or let the air in.

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