Frequeny: At (giant)

AT (giant)

at the time he was a boy

When he was a boy, Johnnie saw a film in which a group of adventurers were shrunk to a microscopic size in order to pilot a spaceship-like vessel through a human body. Sometimes Johnnie wishes he could shrink at will, to see the world from the perspective of a bug, or a one-celled organism, so that he could see everything giant and new again.

at home he was different

Johnnie had once been a quiet, even bookish, boy, for whom the world seemed like a giant playground, full of wonders. But then one day his vision went dark, and the world has never been the same since.

at play in a different world

Kent made giant strides, and found himself living in a house on the beach in Malibu that even a few years earlier he would have never dreamed he would be able to afford, entertaining neighbors to whom wealth had come casually and without effort, people who had never known hunger or fear. He loved to serve them lavish dinners, to light a cigar afterwards and reminisce about the old times, when he was poor and desperate.

at work we could see the change

Soon after she heard the news, Maggie’s career grew to feel like an exercise in futility, an endless run on a giant hamster wheel. She no longer cared if her team made quota, and she wondered why she ever had. Some people might respond by throwing themselves into their work, as if normality was all that they could cling to. Maggie decided to quit the first day somebody asked her if everything was ok. Of course she seemed distracted. Terminal illness has that effect on people.

at home we try to change our way

Charlie and Anna are trying to crack through a giant wall between them. Early indicators are positive. Working on the problems they share gives them something to do, something other than to remember or to regret.

at first she was kind

Charlie and Anna were drawn back together by a giant sense of shared guilt and regret for the moment which they both knew would define the rest of their lives, as much as they each wanted to deny it, if only because they would need to in order to survive. The ice between them started to thaw but slowly.

at this place we would try to make a go of it

At times it is unclear who is the predator and who is the prey. As the security apparatus develops and strengthens and unwinds, as lines are drawn in new sands, Howard can’t help but notice its gaping holes, and of course he too feels the sensation that we might very well lose control and get caught up in the giant web we spin from our fears.

at his word we take him

Anna loved Charlie, though she sometimes wondered if she could trust her instinct to pull him closer to her, or if her need to be with him now was simply borne of her own giant sense of desperation. Being alone with the guilt made her feel so isolated, so cold.

at the time he could still learn a thing or two

Charlie at 22 met Helen at 24 at a club in Greenwich Village. He was there to drop something off. She was there with friends. He was dressed up in a black suit and she wore a delicate perfume and a small black dress that left just enough to the imagination. They drank giant martinis and made small conversation, some of which was charming lies. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever or would ever see that night and later she taught him things, things he would never want or be able to forget.

at the water his will would give out

It comes and goes this grief. Charlie will be just fine for days then he’ll pass a lake, a pond, a stream, and a giant swell of it will rise up in him, and he’ll be gagging back a sob that throbs up through his gut, a storm of empty.