![]() I was preparing Brendan and I a fine meal. It was our anniversary and Brendan had to work late so it was 9pm and I was cooking and the cat came around the corner at the aroma and I fed it canned meat they call pate. It had already smelled up the house as I cooked. As if I could just shake the machine and it would fall and I wouldn’t have to pay for it at all. Do I buy a bag of Combos? It’s leaning against the window of the vending machine as if begging me. I have to go to the bathroom, but I don’t want to miss it. Will I ever get home? And when I do with all the time elapsed and all that has happened, will that salmon have gone moldy and embedded its low tide sea stink into the curtains? Will I have to move? Will I have to get rid of everything? I turned the stove off – of that I am sure. I’m concerned about the salmon I left in the skillet on the stove. A flurry of tests and fluids, imaging and bodies cracking under pressure. Punch and pull.īeyond the door, there is so much happening of interest. Even from across the room I can tell they’re sharp. ![]() She has a tiny pair of scissors that occasionally get taken from a basket. In and out go the thin threads, she pulls and yanks and uses her teeth. In the corner, runner-up for most interesting thing is an old woman needlepointing. We are all sitting and we are all waiting. It is the most interesting thing happening in the room. ![]() Then everyone in the room looks up, assessing where the sound came from. Every time I move, the pleather and metal seat creaks and squeals. Under the blitzing buzzing lights and above the flecked shiny flooring reflecting that blitzing and buzzing yellow lights, I sit and wait. Read an excerpt below and subscribe by May 15 to the Book Club to receive this title and an invitation to an exclusive conversation with the author via Crowdcast. Our June 2023 Rumpus Book Club selection is Jennifer Fliss‘s, As If She Had a Say, which uses an absurdist lens to showcase characters-predominantly women-plumbing their resources as they navigate misogyny, abuse, and grief.
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