cinnabar backfisch

one time i had a dream that bubbles's sister, cinnabar backfisch, was still alive and invited herself over for a visit.

one thursday afternoon i was returning from the store with a package of yarn (i was going to knit a sweater for cousin delling who was going to south africa after university), when i noticed that one of windows was open and missing its screen. i thought there might be a break in, or possibly -- and honestly, more likely -- bubbles was up to something.

when i walked into the kitchen, i saw cinnabar backfisch sitting at the table. she was leaning back in the chair with the front legs lifted off the ground. she asked me where i had been and how long i intended to let her sit there without offering her anything. i opened my mouth to greet her, but she interupted me and asked if i wanted a cup of coffee.

i told her that she shouldn't drink coffee because it would stunt her growth. she laughed at that. i noticed that she had used my cappuccino machine and had left a huge mess in the kitchen. there was milk foam surrounding the machine, grains of sugar across the floor, and a fine grit of ground espresso in a trail on the counter from the container to the coffee machine. i was afraid to open the fridge and see what kind of damage she had done.

when cinnabar noticed the package in my hands she asked "what have you got for me?" i told her it was yarn to knit a sweater for my cousin delling. she wanted to know when i was going to knit a sweater for her. i told her i didn't know her address, so i didn't know where to send it. she asked if i had ever heard of email. i was going to tell her that you can't email a sweater, but realized she'd only reply "yet" and decided not to say anything at all.

when i went upstairs to put the yarn in the closet, i also went into the bathroom. cinnabar had been there too. she had taken a shower and helped herself to my linen closet. she had dripped water everywhere, used my toothbrush, and left her dirty towel laying on the floor. it was very annoying. i wondered where bubbles himself had gone off to.

i came downstairs and found cinnabar sitting in the kitchen, with a cheese sandwich -- she used my best wensleydale -- doing a crossword puzzle from the newspaper. i asked her what she had been up to lately.

she said "a little of this, a little of that." she said she was in town to go to the swiss army knife convention. i asked how long she would be in town. cinnabar said "not too long. i don't like to get bogged down, dude." then, she asked if i could give her a lift to the train station on saturday morning. i asked her what time because i was going to the opera on friday night and would be out late. she said "around noon, then." i agreed. i told her that she could use the guest bedroom, but she said that she preferred to sleep on the couch.

i wasn't sure where bubbles was. cinnabar said that she would call him. he didn't answer, so she left him a voicemail. then she started texting people and essentially ignored my attempt to make conversation. occasionally, she'd nod her head and say "right." when i'd take a breath.

bubbles called and told us that he had a gig in buffalo (it was last minute) and he wouldn't be home until the next week. he told cinnabar that he was sorry that he missed her (i suspect he was only partially telling the truth) and that he hoped to see her soon, and that she should check out buffalo sometime.

i asked cinnabar if she wanted to go out to dinner. we could go to the new greek restaurant that everyone was raving about or we could go for alsatian food. she told me that she wasn't a vegan anymore, and that she had ordered chinese food to be delivered. when i asked what she had ordered, she told me to calm down because she was "gunna" share.

after dinner, she said she had somethings to take care of and would be back later. she came back a few hours later with a few packets of chips and some lemonade. she opened the chips and they spilled out across the coffee table. cinnabar put her boots on the coffee table (perilously close to the chips - you could feel the germs jumping from her feet to the chips) and turned on the inter-dimensional tv and flipped around the channels. she asked if i had some sheets for the couch because she was tired and wanted to get some sleep.

the next morning she was gone before i awoke. however she used my toothbrush and the last of the toothpaste. her dirty clothes were on the bathroom floor with another dirty towel. she spilled nail polish on the window sill. there were a pile of dirty dishes in the table (she made herself an omelette). i didn't hear from her all day and i guess that she was checking out the swiss army knives. she had told me while we were eating dinner that she was looking for a particular knife with a saw with 42 teeth, and she thought there might be a dealer of them at this show. that night i went to the opera.

when i came home that night, all of the lights in the house on. i figured that she was having a party and expected to see drunk people jumping out of the windows. instead the house was very quiet. i walked into the kitchen and found cinnabar and her friends sitting on the floor in a circle playing spin the bottle. my bundles of yarn were on the floor. they had unwound them and were wrapping one another up in the yarn. some of them had little crowns made of yarn on their heads.

i was quite happy to take her to the train station in rhinecliff the next day.

she was headed to renssalaer station. when she got on the train, she said "i'm blowing this popsicle stand."