In Case You Want to Know: Stories

From All The Floating Strings


Do you know the difference between toothpicks and spider webs? It was one of those questions that Coe asked when there was too much silence.



What, Coe? Larry asked.



Thats the thing. There is no difference because everything is connected. Bread and birds and stars and strollers and pain and heat. And thats the trouble. Because nothing gets differentiated. And its all a mass of confusion.



Thats whats wrong with us sometimes, Coe. The way we see things. I think nothing is connected. I think we try, but nothing comes close to anything else. Were all like strings. Kind of floating in a wind. Maybe we touch for a second. And then some breeze makes us flow another way.



She got up and looked at the spider web by the light near the mailbox. Look at the spider, she said. Its still in the middle of the web just waiting. Dont you see that, Larry? Dont you see it hiding like we are? Doesnt that make us all tied together? Arent we connected like that? Cant you see that, too?