With the parents having gone to bed after the news, Jake and Winifred watch a late night tv talk show in the living room while Winifred unwinds from her long drive from Pittsburgh and Jake waits to call Francine good night after her shift at Yaws.
"Sis?"
"Yes, Big Brother?"
"Why do they call it falling in love?"
"What?"
"Why do they call it falling in love?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, does that sound like a good thing?"
"Love? Sure, love's nice. You're a dork, but I love you."
"Not love so much as the falling part. I mean why's the metaphor falling? Does that sound like a good thing? I mean people fall in the bathtub and hit their heads. They fall in pits. They fall in the mud. Why's falling in love a good thing? Why not rising in love? Or flying in love?"
"I guess I've never really thought about it. Um, I guess maybe because the emotions are so strong you can't help it so it's like falling in that way. When you fall, you can't help yourself."
"So love is like a banana peel?"
"What?"
"A banana peel. You know like the old joke where someone slips on a banana peel and everybody laughs."
"Somebody falls down and people laugh. That's kind of mean. I can hardly believe you'd laugh at someone's misfortune, Jake."
"Like you haven't laughed at me the many times I slipped on the ice when we walked to school."
"You're right, when someone falls down, it is pretty funny. Why are mean things funny?"
"I'm thinking the universe is a cruel place and God chuckles at our little misfortunes."
"So to God, all these people running around falling in love is like watching a bunch of people slip on banana peels?"
"Something like that."
"But falling usually means someone gets hurt. So maybe it's a pretty good metaphor. I mean some people fall down and land in something soft and everything's cool, and even they laugh, but other people fall and crack their skulls open, and that's true of love too; there's a lot of heartbreak out there. I'm thinking now that the falling part is a pretty good metaphor. Why'd you ask?"
"Oh, no reason, the commercials were on, and I hate watching them."
"Come on! What's the real reason? Everything all right with Francine?"
"Shhh! The show's back on!"
"You're impossible! I'm going to bed. And don't get any ideas! There better not be a banana peel outside my door in the morning!"
Blog Love Omega Glee is a novel by Wred Fright about two bloggers who fall in love while the world falls apart, which is being serialized on his blog. To start reading from the beginning or read another installment, please visit Blog Love Omega Glee Central on WredFright.Com. If you like what you've read, or you've read all of Blog Love Omega Glee and want more Fright, then please read his first novel.
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