Something Dark, Turning

Something Dark, Turning Michael Mercurio (bio) I I have carried for years the weight of knowing two people who died midair in a clear September morning,the day the 21st Century was truly born. My former coworkers— my friends— Jesus Sanchez and Marianne MacFarlaneleft Boston for Los Angeles angry or confused, passengers are the samewhen you've processed several hundred passing throughbefore a lunchbreak. Once, Jesus was sent to help me worka delay — late plane inbound from Denver when he arrived, he lay his hand on my shoulder, softly punning on his name as he loved to do: Be at peace, my son, for I am with you. End Page 78 V I didn't get to know Marianne until we voted the union insmoked-glass crenellations mirroring the rot some useful thing. VII On New Year's Eve 1999 I was the soleUnited Airlines agent working in Boston baggage claim no one yet knew if systems would crash when double zeroesflipped onto the screen.to this day I don't know if my father sharedthis as comfort — a wick to draw my liquidgrief towards him — or if it was his own immolation spreading unto me. IX & after 9/11, self-appointed seers scried the dark eye of cathode-ray tubes scrolled through...