Frequency: With (dominated)

WITH (dominated)

with so little to show

It’s not as if Johnnie never had any ambitions. He did go to college for a while, and got some formal musical training. He’d had some good jobs too — for a while he’d had a union gig as a forklift operator. But he fucked that up just like he fucked up the band. He isn’t one to admit the extent of his internal turmoil, but his life is dominated by a kind of pain he can think of nothing but drugs to combat. He feels detached from his own body and mind.

with his good name off the page

In Thailand, in a safe place where he was sure none of his conservative clients would ever hear about it, Dave paid top dollar for the services of an exquisite professional who made him feel so dominated that he wept in the throes of it. He found it liberating, this giving in.

with the big picture in play

The San Diego real estate market was on fire. Kent turned three properties and made a half a million dollars in the space of year without putting so much as one penny down. He was no fool and he knew that someday it could all come crashing down, but he grew more confident with each successful deal. This was no time for risk aversion. This was a world dominated by high fliers, men who could pull the trigger. He hadn’t felt so high since the dot com boom went bust.

with the day away from us now

Charlie is on the platform, and the boy is on the train. The train is pulling away, and Charlie is dominated by overwhelming sense of powerlessness. He wants the boy back, off the train, safe in his arms, but he can’t move his arms. He can’t even wave goodbye.

with the spell over now

In Albuquerque, there is magical night with a painter he knew from college. The peyote makes them both see things they have never seen before: Johnnie feels dominated by something approaching love, for the land, for this girl, for this moment. But in the light of the day they both have headaches and feel strange around each other. She makes him chili-fried tofu and egg whites, but something has changed and soon it’s time to get back on the road. He can see her relief as he packs his things to go.

with one hand where I can see it

At a certain point Kent is working so many deals and dealing with so many terms and lines of credit that he has trouble keeping track of them. Balloons, ARMs, floating notes. But he never lets on that he doesn’t understand or lets himself feel dominated by the brokers. No chinks in his armor.

with the world up in the air

Anna’s dreams aren’t all bad. Sometimes she can fly. She stands at the edge of the roof of a tall building, dominated by the urge to leap and catch the wind. Knowing she can fly but hesitating in order to feel the breeze against her skin.

with a change in the point of his word

There were slip-ups between the birth and death of their child. Dominated by his desire to be with Helen again, if only briefly, Charlie allowed himself to change “never again” to “I will never permanently leave you,” and felt ok about it.

with no word to form

With the insurance money and the settlement from their parents and with the loving environment their aunt and uncle provided for them, with so many positive influences, Charlie had other options than to get mixed up with the kind of people he did in his twenties. It wasn’t that he needed the cash, more that he needed to feel like he was a part of what his friends were into. And the danger itself was a thrill. He was dominated by a kind of quiet but persistent tendency towards self-destruction he would be hard-pressed to explain, and he could hardly imagine a life without some degree of danger.

with people to study the answer

Her therapist thought the dream meant she felt dominated by forces beyond her control. Anna knew that they were paying their therapists largely just to restate the obvious, and she was ok with that. She just needed a safe place to talk.