Careful incisions were made. Perfectly symmetrical cuts on my back. Two thin slits lay even. Cat eyes sliced clean then peeled open just enough to extract my appendix. A soft mass of tissue, no longer of use. In its place they inserted a robin’s egg. Brilliantly blue and speckled. The weight of gold nestled beneath my spine. Fragile but whole all the same.
The oranges were plump and rotting. Sagging back into themselves. I watched them, while she ate all of my tomatoes, drank the mint tea with leaves sprouting purple. It was a rooftop garden party where I got bored. So I leaned over and pin-pricked holes into his pristine white tennis shoes, spelling out the phrase, “Pretend you’re lost.” That same night, I shared a bed with a couple. They had me set the alarm for 4am. The wife was pregnant and this was when she walked.
Four tornadoes whipped around in circles outside my window. I was concerned about their closeness. When a baseball was thrown right into the window. Not shattering it, but leaving behind a small peep-hole, enough space for only the ball to pass through and for us to look out into the ominous dark sky. At eye-level, nothing was separating us from the elements. It wasn’t until later that I discovered the grey sky had been seeping in all along, and slowly expanding into the room.
I was writing MONDAY on the chalkboard in bold, bubbly letters, when he sank to the bottom of the pool. He stayed down there so long I decided to join him. He was impressed that I, too, could defy gravity and ruminate at the bottom. When I came up for air I found my friend and placed a nautilus in her hand. She asked me if I was a teacher and I said, Right. But not as a question, as a conviction.
I was dancing in my kitchen. No one was watching except the shadow of my younger self. She looks at me and I stop mid-twirl. I don’t know how I got here. But the light filters in and touches my face just right. I don’t care if anyone discovers me. They would be surprised to find me here. Alone in my kitchen.
The room was bare. Only the window left open. I thought about my security and for a moment reached out to shut the window pane.
But stopped.
I decided to leave the window open because it was old and chipped and likely to be stuck in its frame.
Marga Pictures 