Frequency: Have (inevitable)

HAVE (inevitable)

have you any need to ask why

Johnnie and Charlie are in some ways as close as two brothers can be, bound by their mutual loss and their lack of any other immediate family, though each resents choices that the other has made, and when they see each other, conflict is inevitable.

have you made your move

Some of the simulations the bioterrorism group plays are realistic, while others are absurd. In one game Howard plays a Khazak terrorist who dumps thousands of gallons of mercury in Lake Baikal. Environmental catastrophes are inevitable, and almost impossible to contain.

have you come

Dave and Jenny have dietary differences. She’s almost vegan, though sometimes he’ll talk her into eating fish. Dinner at her house is always tofu or some kind of textured vegetable protein. It’s inevitable that after sex he’ll make up some excuse about an early start and grab a chili cheeseburger on his way back home. He doesn’t like the idea of having choose which hunger to sate.

have they come for us

Howard always double-checks the locks, even the locks on the windows. He locks the door of the conference room when they have a meeting. Everybody he works with has their tics; paranoia is an inevitable outcome of working with paranoids.

have you had your say

When asked at Thanksgiving, Howard opines that the next terrorist attack on US soil will hit Los Angeles. It’s inevitable, shocking that they haven’t hit it yet. The entertainment capital of the world and so on. Probably not planes. Maybe something in the food supply. Maybe a movie theater, for instance, through toxins in the popcorn butter. His mother pauses before passing the mashed potatoes, and says she’s felt safe ever since they moved to Orange County. If it isn’t the rioters in LA, it’s the terrorists.

have to ask for your help

It’s the last thing she wants to ask of her father, but Maggie can’t think of anyone else to turn to, and he won’t even hear of any other arrangement. Still it frustrates her how he keeps hoping for the miracle cure. He spends his days researching alternative medicine sites, and every evening has printouts for her perusal. Just like with her Mom, his optimism is unflappable. He refuses to accept the inevitable.

have you had a good time

It doesn’t take long for Helen to regret the one-nighter with Johnnie in the back of the rented Airstream. It wasn’t bad in the doing, as these things go, but she didn’t even really care for him that much. It doesn’t take long for her to begin the inevitable cycle of self-psychoanalysis. It wasn’t about Johnnie at all, now was it?

have I found my place

Old buildings come down and new edifices rise in their place. Men of means find their way into deals and profit from rising valuations. It’s the way of the world, the harmonious flow of concrete and capital, as inevitable as manifest destiny.

have you even a name for this

The inevitable dream of water, unclean water, stagnating in an abandoned and decrepit pool.

have you some time for me

One of the stranger moments in her night with Johnnie was when, after they had sex, while smoking cigarettes on the couch, Johnnie confessed to Helen that as a teenager he had committed some minor acts of arson, some fires in dumpsters, an abandoned house on the outskirts of town. No one had gotten hurt, still it was destructive, and he felt sort of bad about it. He supposed his fascination with conflagrations was inevitable, in some kind of sick fucked up way, given what had happened to his mom and dad. Helen found herself wishing she had a bathrobe, and gathered her underthings from the floor. Charlie had never talked with her about the fire.