Graft (2015)
“He managed an hour’s sleep at best, folded against the wall alongside his occupied bed.
For a time, the sky lightening, he’d watched Y sleep. Seemingly she trusted him enough to relax and return herself to some base state: a mammal with basic needs, organs to nourish. He listened intently to her every breath in terror she’d simply stop or change rhythm, or begin to relate something awful – cropped phrases, dream excerpts, glimpses of a subconscious path to some greater truth he didn’t want ...to confront. From the draught that swept over his skin, he realized Y’s feet were exposed to the cold, so he rearranged the sheets. As he did, he wondered if the act made him caring or simply reflected his selfishness. In some way it was enough to convince him he’d earned his sleep.
Y was still snoring when he left. He wrote a note for her, stacked a few more cans, left paper and a pen. Don’t panic, he wrote on it. I’ll be home soon.
He didn’t write: Everything must seem normal.MoreLess
For a time, the sky lightening, he’d watched Y sleep. Seemingly she trusted him enough to relax and return herself to some base state: a mammal with basic needs, organs to nourish. He listened intently to her every breath in terror she’d simply stop or change rhythm, or begin to relate something awful – cropped phrases, dream excerpts, glimpses of a subconscious path to some greater truth he didn’t want ...to confront. From the draught that swept over his skin, he realized Y’s feet were exposed to the cold, so he rearranged the sheets. As he did, he wondered if the act made him caring or simply reflected his selfishness. In some way it was enough to convince him he’d earned his sleep.
Y was still snoring when he left. He wrote a note for her, stacked a few more cans, left paper and a pen. Don’t panic, he wrote on it. I’ll be home soon.
He didn’t write: Everything must seem normal.MoreLess
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