Member-only story
Last Call Before Eternity
It was as though he were lying on top of her, slowly pressing all the air out of her body.
What the fuck is wrong with you? She knew he must have been thinking it — and it was a fair question. He had reached for her knee and she’d jerked away, as she always did lately.
She felt bad, again, but something about his fingers made her stomach lurch. It was as though he were lying on top of her, slowly pressing all the air out of her body. She wanted to push him off but didn’t have the strength.
Instead of confronting her, he offered an earbud, his eyes still closed. She turned away as though she hadn’t seen it.
She wondered if she should be medicated. Normal people, of course, got sick of their everyday lives, their husbands, their jobs. But this seemed like something else. One minute she wanted to recoil, wash away every fingerprint he’d ever left on her body over the past five years, scrub her skin until it was peeling and raw. The next, she wanted to climb inside him like a protective suit; stay inside, under the covers, pressed together as one. Safe.
She looked out the bus window. They were passing another farm, its barn peeling yellow. One lone cow stood motionless amid the clumps of old snow in the grass. She imagined living on a farm…
