“Can I show you?”
He just wanted to help. Everything else could leave. She bit his finger, the flowers. Or their child. Nevermind. He was filming himself. That’s the only part that’s missing. He tried to reflect that in his story. They boiled it down to paste. Very cute.
“It’s good to try.”
Pat downs. Knocking. Domestic agents. Blood trails weren’t common because of the dirt. I don’t want to baptize him. Everyone black. Maybe that’s why he was grumpy all the time. Spoil him. It’s medication. Good thing you’re over there. He’d walk barefoot. It was the language barrier. She fucked him. He felt fine.
“Are you sure?”
The center of his head strobed. He didn’t want to testify for them. That’s being simplistic. Run. Play with the kid. If you’re upset, look around you. I’ll just kidnap you and we’ll disappear. The road divided the village in half. You’re lucky it was a clean cut. Riding that rollercoaster. I don’t know. I can show you some examples. She pushed his hand off her. I can’t afford much. He should’ve brought more clothes. If there was a story, somebody else had to find it.
“I’m sorry about your hand.”
For him, endless fever.
Nausea came in the third year. Very biblical, she said. He spit on the calendar. She wept. He wept. They cried. He finally ate.
“Don’t touch it.”
It didn’t go that way. The little red cubes. The play mats. Paper plates on white linen and white cake. So they overextended. It wasn’t too big. He coughed once and they cut again.
“That’s a funny joke.”
It didn’t always hurt to laugh. The son kept staring. His father and his father’s mother. He felt contained. Blended minerals in a Ziploc. They kept sifting and accumulating white. Daily ghosts. He hadn’t bent down since he arrived.
“Supremacy.”
Go now. His shoelaces were gone. He reached down and jerked him up out of the sand and he held stiff. This was the precursor in some movie, she said. He didn’t drink, though.
“For two.”
She came by and offered a glass. On the phone. He behaved himself. His wallet fell out, into the aisle. His fingers were many feet away. Underneath blue every night. They required something more to their purposes.
“Can we just look at it?”
He saw red and heard feet or none at all. He stopped, held his breath, and tried to capture something. For you: never.
He could erect a pyramid. She favored odes. He kept asking. It was a way of playing. Young enough for money. They traded them like pets. The administration was enormous. This small example. The encompassing problem. Trade winds. He read books with the most acidic paper.
“For the audience.”
He knew that black holes were only an idea, still. They stopped rolling. That kept him in bed. He woke to her. Screaming at two and four.
“Can you get him?”
He parsed the hymns and dismissed them fully. A lengthy experiment. They kept him on leash. Didn’t watch any of those movies. He made sure it was still circulating. Keep it elevated.
“We’re going to leave you behind, okay.”
He shook his head. He nodded.
His grandmother called. Long nights of nerve pain. Thresholds. We’re thinking only a few magazines. The photographs were more dramatic. He dreamt of punching through sheets and sheets of water.
“Hold tight.”
They rose with the grass. The dirt hid talc. Mucus first, then other symptoms. He wrote in the journal. Nearing the first anniversary. Satellite range dropped off. They thought it was romantic.
“Establish a call to action.”
It was a passion. The weirdest plea. That’s what it took for her. They cut the tape. He felt large. Burning at the idea of it. West southwest. Go here, please.
“You have to carry me.”
Only one thing you could put: pleasant staff. They all relied on it. Gaunt cheeks. He looked into the clogged ravine and knew.
“There’s not much good.”
She was hard to convince. He cried immediately. The doctor promised them. Two pints of ice cream. Forced to drink it. Rolling blackouts. It’s certainly a handicap.
“I’ll come back later.”
Uninhibited development. She lifted her skirt. The man said over and over that he found it and would never die.
“They don’t make them like they used to.”
He wired money. They had newer responsibilities. She couldn’t trust him. He kept driving. To and from work, at first. They reorganized the room. He left the bible. He told her.
“Sir, please sign.”
He left the table. They followed him. The stage lights dimmed. They’ll cut this up and use it against you. He pushed her down. He rallied. She sighed and opened her legs.
“There’s a real difference.”
The flights. He hated waiting. She kept him up with everything. They kept pushing the drugs. He swallowed. He sat down. He stood and punched the wall. The guide stopped the Jeep. Something was in the road. He pulled over.
“What is it, daddy?”
He could not stop laughing.
He was running out of childhood memories. She stayed in bed. He opened the letter. Relieved. The soup looked milky. There was a head. It was okay. Lost sleep. He remembered news networks. The sugar was doing something to them that he liked. He anticipated it.
“Crawl.”
The baby slept. He felt the knife all over his stomach. He opened his eyes. He looked up. The lights were fake pearl. It was okay not to know now. They left it blank for the first two days. Then they left.
He sat naked for awhile. The TV went off. A passerby recognized him. He waved. He picked up the hose. Summer. Foraging.
“I recommend it.”
He looked across the table. She was having troubles breathing. The waiter left. He came. She paused, explained what she meant by unhappy. It was time to turn it off. They decided together. He jumped out of the way.
“Can you turn it up?”
His childhood was creeping in, she said. They picked him up by his arms and legs. Crying was normal. A good night was a further concern. It could always come back. He felt himself saying it in front of the audiences. The cake was gone. He checked his pockets. He was missing something.
They turned him over. He heard it sizzling beside his head. Short of death. That’s the report.
“We guessed right!”
He wrote that down, that it was terrifying. The letter arrived. He left the case under his cot. The photographer followed him, kept the lens straight into what he was doing with his hand. There wouldn’t be any more aid. Regional concerns. That’s what he told her on the phone. It rained.
“No, there’s ice here.”
He kicked the door. The soup had turned. Hands all over him.
“Hungry?”
Open, then truck. The dirt pulled back into his mouth. They fainted in unison. This was where it all was born and forgotten. He had to tell her. Cradling him wasn’t easy.
Connected to the sweat. He said he wouldn’t be traveling anytime soon. He walked out of the office wanting fire. They lead him to the building. Stripped him. The officer smiled. He placed his hands where he should’ve. It’s all receiving, at this point.