THE RAINY SEASON, Laura Sanger Kelly, 3/11
3.
“Give, and receive, help quickly.”
Barb was moving a small lawnmower to his front lawn when she saw him next.
He wore baggy black pants, a black bandana, and a black t-shirt.
The t-shirt had a picture on it: an old woman, decaying in a noose. The words "Nine Tab" were written beneath her gruesome visage.
Rachel dragged a bag of potting soil around the corner of her house.
"Didn't mean to freak you out or anything," Barb apologized. "About the suicides, I mean. It's all the violence we get, if that helps. If you're safe from yourself, you're probably okay."
"It's okay. I just didn't know."
Rachel wasn't going to stop locking her door anytime soon.
"My cousin killed herself in this house, two years ago," he said, gesturing back towards the blue trimmed house he lived in. "I'm staying with my aunt, helping her out."
"That's very nice of you."
"She's out of town a lot. Keeps herself in denial with work. I get a great place to crash, rent-free. Helps to have no bills when you're in a band."
"You have a gig?"
"Paying work," he replied. "You know, my cousin wasn't the first to do herself in, in this house. There was an old lady, Mrs. Gotsehr, fifty-four years ago, killed herself inside the kitchen. But she had medical problems, so I really don't count her as a true suicide. She was just choosing her own time."
"That's morbid."
"You believe in the usufructuary use of the body?"
"Pardon?"
"Your body is yours to use, but not to destroy."
"I never really thought about it in those terms."
"You learn shit like that, talking to shrinks and counselors." Barb said as he poured gasoline into the mower’s tank. "They all want to be heroes."
[previous] . 1. 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 . 11 . [next]