Aharon Levy

Six Aspects of the Dwarf

The Thief
There was a turd in the toilet when Dan Blossom returned home from work forty minutes earlier than usual. He was fairly certain there had been none there before. He tugged back at the morning's events in his mind. There had been shaving, brushing of teeth, some washing, urination but no defecation. The hairs on the back of his neck rose, one by one and then all together. He stared at the turd, loathe to flush it down. It was, or at the very least could be, evidence. He walked into the kitchen and picked out the largest knife from his block. When he saw that this was a cleaver, he put it back and selected another. This in hand, he began to search through the apartment for missing valuables and for intruders hiding under or behind furniture, in dark corners, in closets.

Inside the dryer, crouched and stinking, the dwarf waited. People often assume, because of their spinal curvature, that dwarves are crouching even when they are not. I am good at this, thought the dwarf in the dryer's cramped insides, this is a job I can do. His bowels complained, without sound, at their unfinished work. He stealthily slipped the zipper up on his pants, tooth by tooth. He waited, hoping that Blossom would grow tired, and that he would not do laundry.

The Lover
In the dwarf's apartment there were three lorakeets. Eleven finches. A den of mice, indeterminate in number as they hid in the straw, certainly plentiful. One solemn, haughty ferret in acage, excited only by food and the red ball. A sinuous And a mantarsier, still mourning for the mate it had partially eaten. Nine rabbits, surprised by little, awkwardly social. The dwarf sang tothe animals in his bad voice, changed the water twice daily and attempted to gauge from their actions and sounds, the nature oftheir desires.

The Concerned Citizen
The dwarf seldom read newspapers or listened to the radio. He had no television. He had once picked up a newspaper on a parkbench. It was open to a story about a man on a farm across the country who had been accused of molesting sheep. The article's author offered no definition of molestation, only the facts that the man had been found guilty and that the sheep had been destroyed, of which action there had been no definition either. Reading this, the dwarf cried. The next day, he wrote a letter, which was not published, to the newspaper's editor.

The Monster
His life. His whole life.

The Thinker
The dwarf is bettering himself, the weekly materials assure him, in the privacy of his own home. They also remind him that he has fallen somewhat behind in his tuition payments. In the same brown envelope, he receives encouraging typed statements from the course's instructor, whom he has never laid eyes on and so is able to imagine as almost impossibly distinguished. The dwarf doubts the professor thinks much about him, but has decided that if he does he imagines no one and nothing in particular, someone who has not yet fully grasped subjunctives but possesses, as the typed comments have noted several times, a flair for analogy.

There are other reminders and bits of advice. He is closer to the degree than he might think, since credit is given for life experience. There is a discount taken for two or more courses taken in conjunction. The institution is fully accredited by the appropriate authorities. He remains awake when he knows he should sleep, chewing the end of a pencil, examining his work for errors.

The Dreamer
In the dwarf's dream, he flies. There is candy, of every type, everywhere, dropping from the sky and rising from the ground, floating through the air he floats through as well. He will find this odd later if he remembers it, because when not sleeping he is not fond of sugary things. In his dream, he is not, as one might expect, six feet tall. But he does fly, which when awake no one may do.

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