Machine Dreams

happening.
    You watch your little brother
, Mom would say to me. He was walking, but barely. She would hang clothes out on the line in summer, big baskets of clothes, the sheets flapping and hiding her from view. We were way down in the yard, far from the road, and Jean’s radar was finely tuned. She probably didn’t take my abilities as Billy’s protector all that seriously, since I was only about three myself. But I was very serious. I wouldn’t even let him stand up. I kept him entertained with the ball or the block or whatever he was fooling with; if all else failed, I held him down by main force. She’d come back to see why he was crying.

MACHINE DREAM
Danner
    D anner and Billy are walking in the deep dark forest. Billy makes airplane sounds. Danner, oblivious to her brother’s play, is stalking the magic horse. There are no cloven tracks, but the dust on the path is disturbed and the horse seems to be circling. Occasionally Danner looks over her shoulder and sees the animal watching them through thick leaves. The mare’s eyes are large and certain. Certain of what? Billy pays no attention and seems to have followed his sister here almost accidentally. They walk on, and finally it is so dark that Danner can’t see Billy at all. She can only hear him, farther and farther behind her, imitating with a careful and private energy the engine sounds of a plane that is going down. War-movie sounds.
Eeee-yoww, ach-ack-ack.
So gentle it sounds like a song, and the song goes on softly as the plane falls, year after year, to earth.

PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP:
Excerpt from “O Superman (for Massenet)” by Laurie Anderson, copyright © 1982 by Difficult Music. Reprinted by permission of the author as administered by Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP.
    Hal Leonard Corporation:
Excerpt from “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” words and music by William “Smokey” Robinson, copyright © 1962, 1963, copyright renewed 1990, 1991 by Jobete Music Co., Inc. All rights controlled and administered by EMI April Music Inc. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Reprinted by permission of Hal Leonard Corporation.
    MCA Music Publishing:
Excerpt from “Turn on Your Lovelight,” words and music by Deadrick Malone and Joe Scott, copyright © 1961, 1989 by MCA-Duchess Music Publishing, a division of Universal Studios, Inc. and Joseph Scott Music Co., copyright renewed. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Reprinted by permission of MCA Music Publishing.
    Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc.:
Excerpt from “Do Nothin’ Till You Hear from Me” by Duke Ellington and Bob Russell, copyright © 1943 (copyright renewed) by EMI Robbins Catalog Inc. and Harrison Music Corp in the USA. All rights outside USA administered by EMI Robbins Catalog Inc.; excerpt from “I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)” by Duke Ellington and Paul Webster, copyright © 1941 (copyright renewed) by EMI Robbins Catalog Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL 33014.

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