$UN선$AILOR: Shut up, Lingerer!

Metal Ox sits back deep on her haunches, "Shut up, Lady."

Walking casually on the ground toward her, "What's the matter?" Ladybug asks, "Why the haunches?"

"What do you mean why?" Metal Ox groans.

Ladybug flops to the ground, exhausted, all six legs splayed out around him, chin resting on the ground, his head bobbing up with every syllable, "What's She done to make you sit on your haunches, Ox?"

"She told us that we were doing 'The Dream'!" Metal Ox shouts.

"You are doing 'The Dream', Ox," Ladybug mimics.

"No." Metal Ox sinks deeper down onto her haunches.

Ladybug laments, "It could take me all year to guess, and you've had us in this holding pattern for months now, as it is. Please, dah-ling, please tell us what's the matter, so that She can deal with it, and then, we can get on with it. Please," Ladybug begs, on all twos, all fours pleading like a weak beggar.

"She promised no more school! She promised The Dream! We're living my dream, and it was never my dream to make clothes! That's her dream!" Metal Ox finally screams, out of breath, furious.

Ladybug's blown back at Metal Ox's fury, shakes himself off, and with a huff, "Okay, jesus-fucking-christ, relax!"

Ladybug buzzes on over to her, and She swats him away, "---eee" rides on the air.

"Lady!" She shouts as She searches around herself for any sight of Ladybug.

Ladybug buzzes back to her, "You knew I was just over there," he points as he catches his breath.

"Sorry, Lady," She exhales.

"It's okay," Ladybug consoles as he flies up to her shoulder and takes a seat, "So I know what's up with the Ox," he begins.

"What now?" She inquires, halfheartedly.

"Well, according to her, this is not her dream," Ladybug explains.

She ponders this.

Squirrel loads her another bowl.

She ponders more.

"Tiny Totes, Tiff's T-bags," She whispers.

Ladybug opens a photograph and shows it to her.

"Fuck," She exhales as she hangs her head, "The Ox is fucking right. We're gonna have to go through Tiny Totes Town. This is, in fact, our next destination."

"Well no wonder the road to the Listmaker's Ranch eluded us so," Ladybug shouts like a medieval warrior.

"The fuck, Lady?" She scoffs.

"What? We didn't know where we were supposed to go next," Ladybug shrugs.

"Well now we fucking do," She stands, frustrated, relieved, aligning toward the heading, "Come on you stubborn motherfucker! You happy now? We're fucking going to fucking Tiny Totes Town!" She shouts loud enough for Metal Ox to hear. She rolls her eyes, "Thanks. Lady."

"What? You wanna be stuck here for more time?" Ladybug asks, seriously.

"No. I'm ready to get on with it, but there? Why?" She slumps.

"You're living her dream, and before she wanted to make clothes, she wanted to make bags, remember? And it was that girl who got us here," Ladybug remarks, offhandedly, while attending the wing that refuses to fold properly after She smacked him against a wall earlier in "today," remember that?

"Shut up, Lingerer," Ladybug spits while tending to his wing.

"Ugh. I know you're right," She slumps even slumpier this time; "To Tiny Totes Town," She excitedly exclaims, feigned.

And even though Metal Ox knows that She's being a cunt by rolling her eyes at her she happily thinks to herself, "If I don't make her see this now, it'll come up later."

And She and Ladybug shout in unison, "Shut the fuck up, Lingerer, like, NOW!"

it's true
teenaged tiffany wanted nothing more than to make tiny totes
&when i stopped sewing
about three weeks ago
unable to get back into it
i had to figure out what the fuck was going on
&figure it out we did
&so
we are going to have to take this detour
through Tiny Totes Town
(or as the bodybuddy/lifemate says, "Toteston, like Downton, obviously,"
but i am not a british cunt
for i am an american cunt
and thank the good lord Lady
that i am not a british cunt
cause
leave it up to the britons
to figure out the most sinister way
to publicly lynch a black man
without a single trace back to a single individual
cause he was awarded his position
by committee
this is some stone-cold supremacy shit
&yet
nobody seems to really want to speak to it in this light
but just think about it
for one goddamn minute
&you'll realize
that that killing of that professor
was an orchestrated lynching
&if you do not want to accept that these are the lengths
that racist-fucking supremacist britons will go
to send a message
think again)
in order to successfully make it to our desired destination
Designville
&we're all on this ride
together
so no
i do not know how many fucking totes it will take
to satisfy this motherfucker

it's my new "bag" bag
we take all of these shapes/sizes
of reusable bags
to the store with us every time we shop:
one super-extra large
one regular-sized grocery bag
(the size of a brown paper bag)
one paper "plastic" bag
&one smaller but heavy-duty bag
(for like milk cartons &beer packs)
&i was using a free little plastic thing
&now i get to use this!

aching for The Embers
like my life depends on it
&also
terrified
cause like
what the fuck
this has been one insane year
so far
&for me
The Embers
is when it all starts to "get started"
so i'm holding on for dear life
over here
y'all
*sighs*

hang in there
^..^