Page 36

By Jack Joseph Smith

married. Oh. Now Michael, you look nice. Except we need some shoes. Would you like to wear the shoes Grandmother Frost sent you for Christmas. They are very good shoes though, and you must take care of them. Mom, hows come its so dark now, when it was so sunny this morning? Things change Michael; and the weather is no exception. Now put your shoes on; and you can wear this jacket from Grandmother Faolain. I wish they were here to see you. The house became a non identified shifting of a many faced carnival; but there was no mystery in their eyes. The women smiling like false eyelashed children, And the man balancing the martini glass on his grownup head. No matter to me and I went dancing through the dining room and around the high backed chairs and into the kitchen smelling and seeing all kinds of strange things like burbon glasses being filled with cherries and oranges and the toasting to the turkey in the pan with its bare legs sticking up in the air. It would run going through their different worlds appearing and disappearing; and they would greet me as I came and Michael would be my name as I answered all their questions for them. They were like flash cards runing above my eyes, while I moved beneath them in my own underworld. I could see in their stretching faces filled with straining laughter that they all wanted to be happier than they were; no matter how happy that might be. The laughter was not real, because they did not belong there; together. The only thing they knew about each other was that they were beginning to be the silent wealthy that nobody ever hears about, because their place was to be executives and not dictators; that they might

Original Scan

Page 36

AI Interpretation

GPT

Once the child is dressed and fitted with Christmas shoes and jacket, the house fills with holiday guests who look festive but hollow, and the adult laughter begins to feel like a performance of rising wealth.

The domestic room turns into a carnival of faces, bourbon glasses, cherries, oranges, and business manners, but the child reads strain beneath the surface almost immediately. Wurlitzer success and executive aspiration are present less as pride than as a social costume everyone is trying to keep on.

Claude

Finished dressing (shoes from Grandmother Frost, jacket from Grandmother Faolain), the boy enters the party as 'a non identified shifting of a many faced carnival', women 'smiling like false eyelashed children' and a man 'balancing the martini glass on his grownup head'. He weaves through 'their different worlds appearing and disappearing', answering questions 'as Michael would be my name', the guests 'like flash cards runing above my eyes' while he moves 'in my own underworld'. His sharp social read carries the page: 'their stretching faces filled with straining laughter ... wanted to be happier than they were', the laughter unreal 'because they did not belong there; together', all of them 'beginning to be the silent wealthy', placed 'to be executives and not dictators'.