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_ My father was always angling, always trying to get
something for nothing or something for cheap. At
restaurants he’d sneak airplane bottles of booze
in his trouser pockets, order a Coke, and when the
waitress had her back turned, he’d spike his drink
with rum. A relationship with his daughter, which
he didn’t particularly want, could be turned into
into a maid service for twenty dollars a week. He
paid me to clean his one-bedroom apartment—the
white rundown building with the outdoor pool
beside Whiteoaks Mall. It was across the city from
where I lived and took an hour by bus to get there
after school. There was a Hasty Market beside the
building, and I would buy a bag of sour cream and
onion chips before letting myself into his apartment.
The place was easy to clean; I just had to vacuum,
change his sheets, dust, and scrub the bathroom.
Having recently left the woman he’d left my mother
for, my father didn’t have very much in the way of
worldly possessions. All furniture was utilitarian:
a bed, a couch, an end table, a kitchen table, chairs.
There was no art on the wall, no books. Everything
was beige. The only trace of an interest was the golf
magazines in the bathroom and the tees and balls
absentmindedly left on his dresser top with his
pocket change. While I cleaned, he made spaghetti
or ordered pizza. He’d say, I’m not going to ask you
about school and then he didn’t bother to ask me
anything at all. We ate side-by-side on the couch
watching The Andy Griffith Show then The Honey-
mooners on his old black and white TV. The shows
made him laugh until tears formed in his eyes. But
I wasn’t laughing, so he’d explain each joke after
it was delivered, trying to make me see Jackie
Gleason’s god-damn genius, his bloody brilliance.

Short Film: Spoonfed
15:51 minutes
Directed and story by Marie Horodyski, Written by Kathryn Mockler
Starring: Paul De La Rosa, Aidan Devine, Keir Gilchrist

It is an early Friday morning. The alley is quiet except for the shopping carts and the rattling cans and bottles of the bottle collectors. This area is home to mostly apartment buildings, some large and high with swimming pools, others three-story walks-ups. All of the buildings are well-maintained with pleasant flowerbeds, manicured bushes, and healthy green lawns. Continue Reading