By Proxy

Ensemble perception

Many learn to read a room early in life.

The big picture. The details. The gaze gauge of how best to react and respond.

Called ensemble perception, “ …research suggests that we have mechanisms … that allow us to quickly extract an average impression from a crowd.” Read more at Psychology Today here.

Public domain photo

Observation done well is a superpower. No one notes the notes the observer files away in the memory banks for a foreseeable future — on the page, the stage, the canvas or perhaps, stand-up comedy.

“My parents didn’t want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty and that’s the law.”

Jerry Seinfeld, comique d'observation extraordinaire

Miami fifty years back was some place to see. Some place to be, the place to retire and lose all perception of time.

“By Proxy” is told through the eyes of a ten-year-old girl while visiting her great-great-grandmother.

This kid is an observational superhero.

The first sentence is a favorite of mine:

“Two gossip mavens stop my mother on Collins Avenue to ask how is it possible that she could have three children, darling you look so young were you a teenage bride?”

“By Proxy” appeared online (2/27/2015) as part of the Strange Encounters: Fiction, Memoir and Poetry Anthology. Read the story here.

Thank you, Wordrunner eChapbooks.

Trigger warning for uneasy moments.

Thanks for reading.