begin

this was a year ago. a newspaper blew across the parking lot. it missed the puddles and i picked it up, as it it had a life of it's own and needed saving. there was a story about a chimpanzee in las vegas. it had escaped the cage in which it was meant to live between magic shows. somehow the chimp had laid it's hands on a gun, a small feminine pistol from the bag of a showgirl's changing room. it swung from the window and made it's way to the rooftop swimming pool. for three hours the chimpanzee took pot shots at the universe. he emptied the chamber of the gun into the sky. a stray bullet lodged itself in the hip bone of an aged nun, down in the street. to end the 'stand off' the chimpanzee was sedated with a tranquiliser dart and later visited the nun in the downtown catholic hospital.