By Ben Greenman
from forthcoming collection, as yet untitled
Costume parties, opening-night parties, formal parties, picnic parties, Oscar parties, Mars parties, circus parties, parties where guests had to bring a theme themselves, almost erotic parties scheduled puckishly for the Yuletide, parties in apartments and suburban houses and docked yachts and conference rooms, birthday parties at school where teachers ate cake that they knew would be available in the office refrigerator for the better part of the week, parties at home that celebrated a promotion or a visit or an illness narrowly averted, slick or sodden conversations held aloft like drinks no one really wanted but drank anyway, making eyes at other eyes, waiting vainly for the sound of real laughter. This was what people did, and what they did for each other, for better or for worse.
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