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**This short story is included in the collection Bedtime Stories For The Damned**
It happened a tossed clock, a trashcan.
Then Carla lost herself to the rage and everything changed.
Descriptions are silly. Here's a
Five minutes.
“Five. Minutes,” Carla said.
The paw of the Lucky Cat clock waved forward and backward at her, ticking away in the cramped bathroom.
Tick-tick.
Tick-tick.
Tick-tick.
Lindsey picked the clock up earlier that morning. Lindsey liked picking up things when she was out and about, and she’d been out and about more since Courtney had started school at Holy Episcopal.
Carla left the too quiet bathroom and walked down the hallway, with pictures of the two of them hugging or kissing at the St. Louis Arch, the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower. Lindsey was a sucker for architectural landmarks and the two of them had tried to hit every landmark in the world.
That was all before they decided to have a baby thirteen years ago.
Lindsey carried, Carla fussed.
That’s how things worked.
And when little Courtney came into the world, Carla saw something flare in Lindsey’s eyes, and something else die. Courtney became the center of Lindsey’s universe. The very center. And Carla became something less.
Not a planet, not a moon, but a rinky-dink satellite.
In the living room, Carla sat down on the couch that she and Lindsey picked out together before Courtney. Carla sat on the couch and stared at the blank television screen, searching for an answer to what had happened in the bathroom.
Shaking her head, not believing it, Carla put her hands on her knees to stand up. She found herself having to do that more as she replaced Lindsey’s dying love with sweets.
Carla didn’t stand up though. She stared at the tops of her hands. She stared at the angry red scratches that streaked her hands, her wrists, her forearms, and for a moment, she saw Lindsey’s face at the ends of her arms.
She saw Lindsey’s face turning from white to red to blue. She saw the blood vessels in Lindsey’s eyes. Red fireworks erupting across a white sky. She saw the blood vessels on Lindsey’s high cheekbones, one of the features that first attracted her, burst until Lindsey didn’t even look like her Lindsey anymore. Instead, Lindsey took on the appearance of a bleary-eyed, blue-faced wino.
It happened a tossed clock, a trashcan.
Then Carla lost herself to the rage and everything changed.
Descriptions are silly. Here's a
Five minutes.
“Five. Minutes,” Carla said.
The paw of the Lucky Cat clock waved forward and backward at her, ticking away in the cramped bathroom.
Tick-tick.
Tick-tick.
Tick-tick.
Lindsey picked the clock up earlier that morning. Lindsey liked picking up things when she was out and about, and she’d been out and about more since Courtney had started school at Holy Episcopal.
Carla left the too quiet bathroom and walked down the hallway, with pictures of the two of them hugging or kissing at the St. Louis Arch, the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower. Lindsey was a sucker for architectural landmarks and the two of them had tried to hit every landmark in the world.
That was all before they decided to have a baby thirteen years ago.
Lindsey carried, Carla fussed.
That’s how things worked.
And when little Courtney came into the world, Carla saw something flare in Lindsey’s eyes, and something else die. Courtney became the center of Lindsey’s universe. The very center. And Carla became something less.
Not a planet, not a moon, but a rinky-dink satellite.
In the living room, Carla sat down on the couch that she and Lindsey picked out together before Courtney. Carla sat on the couch and stared at the blank television screen, searching for an answer to what had happened in the bathroom.
Shaking her head, not believing it, Carla put her hands on her knees to stand up. She found herself having to do that more as she replaced Lindsey’s dying love with sweets.
Carla didn’t stand up though. She stared at the tops of her hands. She stared at the angry red scratches that streaked her hands, her wrists, her forearms, and for a moment, she saw Lindsey’s face at the ends of her arms.
She saw Lindsey’s face turning from white to red to blue. She saw the blood vessels in Lindsey’s eyes. Red fireworks erupting across a white sky. She saw the blood vessels on Lindsey’s high cheekbones, one of the features that first attracted her, burst until Lindsey didn’t even look like her Lindsey anymore. Instead, Lindsey took on the appearance of a bleary-eyed, blue-faced wino.
38 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 28, 2012
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