Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
Christophe, please come out. I know you miss her. I miss her too. And I'm really scared, Christophe. I don't have a lot left of her... you know, of Tully. Deeogee is gone, Tobias has run off to God knows where. You are all I have left of her. If you go away then I have nothing. I don't want to lose her completely, Christophe. Please. Please don't make me lose her completely.
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
Our daughters were born in a small village in southern China. They were abandoned by their birth parents on their first day of life. The dilapidated orphanage was unable to feed all the children that lived there, so many of the children were rented out as day laborers. Some were injured, some were adopted out as indentured servants, some just never came back.
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
Tully nodded, "it's the placenta." Tully arranged the garbage bag under the woman and instructed her to push when she needed to. But when the woman again moaned and panted with great strain, Tully realized that something was terribly amiss. She looked again under the frock, reached up, and then asked the husband, "did you know you were having twins?"
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
The fan girl smiled sideways at Tobias, "Oh yes, I know about your girlfriend," she rolled her eyes, "The famous American director." The girl looked around the room, "But, I do not see her here, do you? Besides..." she slid her hands over Tobias' shoulders and locked them behind his neck, "Wouldn't you like to take a ride in a Ferrari for a change, instead of your dependable old rattletrap?".
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
There is nothing in this life more tedious, more annoying, more demanding of your adherence to a certain type of dishonesty than a promotional tour filled with media interviews. For three days we were lulled into submission with the same ridiculous questions (where is your favorite place to perform? London, of course! Ha-ha!); the same stupid jokes (introducing the band that executed a Blitzkrieg on the rock music scene! Ha-ha!); the same fake personalities with chemically whitened teeth.
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
I was ashamed, but too angry to admit it right away. But with each passing week my position gradually softened. John assured me, during many a late night conversation, that compassion for a fatherless little boy did not indicate my approval of my dad's infidelity. "If your Mom can get past it, why can't you?"
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
Frau Gottlieb eventually complained to the superintendent about my "incessant noise." I was a nuisance, she said, getting in the way of decent people trying to enter and exit their own home. The superintendent hated the old woman, but often catered to her social stature (her late husband once served on the Senate of Berlin). So, he apologetically asked that I play my guitar elsewhere, "why not go across the street? The old goat can't stop you from using a public park."
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
"I am more like Tobias than you realize, Florian. I understand what drives him. Did Tobias tell you how this whole thing started between us?" A guilty grin tugged at the corners of Florian's mouth. Tully chuckled, "Of course he did. It was too good a story not to share with his best mates. We started in a very nontraditional way. It stands to reason we will continue in a similar manner.
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
I took Tully to the large park across Ebertstrasse where snow had already accumulated in small drifts. She clutched my arm with one hand and held her mug of coffee with the other as she leaned over to watch her feet make indentations in the snow. She seemed amused by the sound it made as it compacted under her weight. Flakes accumulated in her hair and her cheeks had become rosy against the cold.
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
When we met, Elisa was a confident, strong woman of beauty and stature. By the time she left us she was paranoid and defeatist; a shadow of her former self, filled with self-doubt and self-loathing. Elisa's agony was the mirror opposite of her ecstasy.
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
For the first few hours, Papa cycled between sitting, pacing, and looking out the window at the surrounding city. He spoke only to tell me the time. His face was affixed in a tense expression; not quite angry, but unsettling nonetheless.
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
Down the back of her toned arms was a litter of small, round lavender marks. The muscles beneath her thick buttocks and thighs moved beneath her skin like a tiger, an effect further emphasized by the striped scars that ran down her legs. Upon her right calf, just outside the pigment of her tattoo, was a very old, very deep, very clearly human bite mark.
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
Papa left the room to make a call, returning minutes later tense and distracted. He sat next to me and picked up a package of candies. "so, how are we doing this?" he asked with irritation. I showed him how to assemble the favor, and we finished the task together while silently wondering what lay ahead upon Mama's return.
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
The boys were all arrested and roughed up pretty bad by the police. Ray eventually took all the blame, so Abraham and the rest o' the brothers were released to Big Mama and Daddy. But Ray remained in that jail for over a week, unable to receive visitors and not afforded his right to due process. He died in custody.
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
It had been oppressively hot, well into the 90s, and the daily rains drenched the air until we prayed to grow gills. I didn't sleep well the night before. I just felt I should stay awake to keep the predators away.
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
"Alas poor Yorick! I knew him Horatio!" Female giggles and shrieks emitted from my handy as the video played. I watched in disbelief, grinning at the drunken antics of one Tully Kappell. Jay and Heidi came and stood beside me, craning their necks to see the video.
Diana Watson
- The Magnificent Maggnom Opus
Pops was the assistant foreman with Blanco Construction. That was pretty much all I knew of his line of work. He would sometimes tell Mama a funny story about his coworkers but, most of the time when Mama asked him how the job was going, he would always reply the same way, "eh, you know. It pays the bills."
Diana Watson
- Magnificent Maggnom Opus
After dinner we went out to the back veranda. Tobias handed out some cigars he had purchased while in town the day before. Tully brought out a bottle of twenty-five year old brandy. She had been saving the precious amber liquid, she told us, for a special occasion. "I think this counts." She lifted her glass into the air. We mimicked her, holding our snifters aloft as Tully gave a toast, "to Feuer Frei and the amazing days ahead."
