Day 11

Loyalty

I received the letter about six weeks after my husband’s funeral. It was signed, “Love, Your Marshmallow.” It was the same thing he called me when we were dating. She clearly didn’t know that her “Teddy Bear” was pushing daisies.

Day 10

Vision

The woman in the lab coat placed special equipment over my eyes. A video began playing. Clips of the same man in different scenarios. One clip showed him making jokes during a wedding toast. Another showed him carving wood. The last clip was him with a gun in his mouth. He was…

Day 9

Deservedness

People thought the end of the world would happen overnight. It was actually a series of preventable events — like the election of President Trump in 2016, the collapse of the Dollar in 2023, and the famine of 2036 — that led to the end of modern civilization. But in all reality…

Throwing away memories

It happens again — one more lover enters your life and then exits. For all of the giddy excitement at the beginning, a roller coaster cranking loudly up the starting ramp, there is an equal horror and emptiness as the one you held rushes away and you feel your stomach lift up in the air.

Day 8

Physics

The typical person reaches terminal velocity in about 12 seconds during freefall. During that time, he will have traveled about five football fields. Or more accurately, I will have traveled five football fields.

Day 7

The surgeon fixes a mask to my face and instructs me to count backwards from ten.

Ten

For some reason, the image of my friends and me skateboarding at the park comes to mind. I’m reminded of how effortless skating came to me. To be ten again.

Day 6

Rituals

I’m no medium, but I’ve encountered a few ghosts in my day. They’re always looking for something. Some are looking for love, some for companionship, and others just want somebody to screw. I’ve got proof. My very own dating mausoleum.

Day 5: Last Minute

It’s 11:25pm and I’m laying in my bed typing this on my phone because I’m too lazy to get to my laptop. I would have written this earlier but it’s Friday and I spent the afternoon at the gym then Frisbee then dinner then night Frisbee and all of a sudden it’s 11:25. It was a blast though, I…

Day 5

Friendship

Ugh, Lauren is, like, always coming to me with these melodramatic questions, like I know the answer.

“Is Jake cheating on me?”

“Do you think Jake loves me?”

Throw your hat over the wall

I woke up in the pitch dark last night feeling the kind of fear that’s rooted in your stomach, like your insides know there’s a threat and they’re trying to get out. I was crying before I even sat up straight. The first two weeks after the breakup I’d been sad but I was letting…