All About Ari.*

Ari took a long last drag from his cigarette and then dropped the butt on the ground. He stepped on it with the end of his boot and smeared the ashes into the sidewalk. It looked as if he had stepped on an insect or small animal of sorts, only instead of blood there was just black burned leaves and paper. He adjusted his scarf around his neck, and pulled it up to cover his mouth. He put his hands in his coat pockets. He walked along the edge of the sidewalk almost teetering into the street. It was cold out. Trees that grew out of holes in the ground were bare and gray. Crows sat perched on the branches and occasionally cawed and fluttered their wings. Ari kept walking. He walked and walked and walked and then walked into a diner. He sat down at the bar and ordered a cup of coffee and a basket of french fries.

"Lemme get a cup of coffee and basket of french fries," he said.

The waiter standing behind the bar was fat and hairy and wore a white apron stained with grease. He looked at Ari and snorted and scratched his ass and then rang up Ari's order without saying a word. The whole exchange - Ari sitting down, Ari ordering, the waiter ringing up Ari's order, took less than a minute. There was no need for someone to bring Ari a menu; he knew what he wanted. No one needed to walk him to a place to sit; he knew where he wanted to sit. He didn't even need to wait for the waiter to come and take his order. The waiter knew what his job was and he knew that it had to be done so he did it. If he didn't do it he didn't get paid and he wanted to get paid. They had never met or even seen each other before but during that minute they both lived in the same world where waiting wasn't necessary because both of them knew exactly what they wanted.

The waiter brought Ari his coffee first and then his french fries and then asked him if he wanted anything else. Ari said he didn't want anything else and that if he did he would ask for something else. It was the first time since Ari had walked into the place that he and the waiter had spoken directly to each other and still they had already communicated so much. But now there was an uneasiness between them that they both sensed but didn't say anything about. Then the waiter walked away and Ari drank his coffee, black, and ate his french fries with some ketchup that was already waiting for him in a bottle at the bar. He thought about the ketchup and felt glad that it couldn't feel anything like emotions, because he thought it must be awful to be a bottle of ketchup - always in one place, waiting for someone to come and turn you over use you until you're all used up. Then gets thrown out. It could takes weeks or it could take days, and if it never happened it'd still get thrown out anyways, only completely full and completely wasted. It would be a terrible way to live. When he finished his coffee and his fries he put a few bills down and then just sat there. He looked at the waiter and then sort of spun around on his barstool, looking at everyone else. He saw an old couple eating burgers at a booth, 'cept they ate their burgers with a knife and fork instead of their hands. He saw a young couple sitting and holding hands across the table and looking in love. Then he saw a girl sitting alone at a booth reading a book. Ari studied her with his eyes. She sat up straight in her seat and held her arms out straight in front of her, resting the book on the table. There was a cup of coffee sitting on the table too. She was pretty. She had long black wavy hair that hung down past her chest. She wore a knit cap with ear warmers and tassles that hung down and rested on her shoulders. She had freckles on her cheeks and her cheeks were rosy and full of life.

Ari got up from his seat at the bar and sat down across from her. He didn't say a word but instead sat up straight like she was and put his hands in his lap and waited. A few seconds that seemed like minutes passed and the girl said something.

"Hello."

"Hello. What are you reading?"

Ari saw perfectly well what she was reading but decided to ask her anyways. The girl spoke without even so much as glancing up from her book.

"Oh. This? This is a book my friend let me borrow. He says it's very good, swears by it. It's about some guy who kills some guy and then goes to jail and then in the end realizes that his life is all pointless and that he doesn't matter and that no one cares about him."

"Hm. Sounds like you already know the whole story, so why read it?" Ari asked.

"Just something to do, I guess. Thought maybe I'd get my own perspective on it, you know?"

"True," Ari said.

"So what's your name?" The girl asked.

"I'm Ari. You?"

"Fran. Call me Franny, everyone else does. Or Steph. It doesn't matter."

"Well, Franny, it's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, Ari."

Franny finally looked up from her book and looked into Ari's eyes. He noticed that she had the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. Bright blue, big. He felt like he could spend forever just looking into them.

"I hope you don't think I'm weird, just coming over here and sitting down across from you like this. You just looked lonely."

"Oh no, it's completely fine. I suppose that's why I would choose to sit here anyways. Just me, across from an empty seat. It would be rude for you not to sit down, if you saw me, I think. Most people are rude though, that's the thing. They see a girl like me sitting here alone and think 'oh, she's lonely, we'll just leave her like that then' instead of thinking that maybe I left the seat open because I am just waiting for someone to come sit in it. Like you, Ari. I suppose I was just waiting for you and that's why I chose to sit here."

Ari smiled and nodded. He didn't quite know what to say but he felt that it didn't matter whether or not he did or didn't say anything. Then he said something.

"No problem."

Franny smiled and then kept reading. They both sat there not saying anything for a few minutes until Ari got up suddenly. Franny looked up from her book. He looked down at her.

"It was very nice meeting you Franny. I'm going to go home now."

"Oh, yes, it was nice meeting you too Ari. I hope maybe we can meet again sometime?"

"Maybe. Probably not, but maybe."

Ari turned around and headed towards the door without looking back. He could feel her eyes upon him and he smiled a bit but then walked out of the diner. The cold winter air stung the tip of his nose. He walked along the edge of the sidewalk teetering into the street a bit. He lit a cigarette as he walked and held it between his lips at the side of his mouth. He put his hands in his pockets and thought about Franny and how pretty she was and what she was reading and what she had said. He thought about the waiter with his grease-stained apron. He thought about the old couple eating their hamburgers with a knife and fork and the young couple in love.

Then Ari went home and hanged himself.