It’s Tuesday. Knock knock. The groceries are here. Go to the door. Take your time. It’ll be fine. Deep breaths. Knives in my chest. It’ll be over in a heartbeat. It’s twisted in a knot. Peek through the gap in the boards on the window. He can’t see in, no one can. You can see out but that’s never a good idea. A dark new face, a Middle Eastern boy in red and white. Irritating colours for my irritable eyes. It’ll be over in a heartbeat. It’s trembling like a newborn. Look at the nametag. Gian-Carlo? What happened to FrankLin? Who is this imposter? I’ve read about the Middle East. He’s probably done God-knows-what to my oyster sauce. He might have poisoned the vegetables. I’ll be washing them this time, and checking the seal on every jar and bottle. Okay here it comes, just look as normal as you can. It’ll be over in a heartbeat. It’s burning like a furnace. It’s pumping like a jet engine. Turn the handle and the rest turns by itself. The World wakes up kicking and screaming and the door bursts open in a tantrum. Trucks and cars whoosh past, horns blare and sirens screech. Neighbors’ music drums my ears. The air buzzes, the wind pounds against my skull. Vines and flowers on the fence twist, twirl, curl and swirl and the porch, street and sky bend in like a vortex. It’ll be over in a heartbeat. It’ll be over in a heartbeat. It’s sucking you in, stirring you up and tossing you into infinity like a wormhole. It’s stabbing you in the chest like a fucking psychopath. It’s breaking out of its body and leaving you here to die. Hold out your arms for the grocery bags. Throw them inside. Keep your head down. Don’t look out there. Don’t look at Giancarlo. Grab the pen, scramble your name, gargle a “thank you” and slam the door. Fall to the floor. Tears appear. You’re safe in here. Deep breaths. Knives in my chest. His footsteps grow quiet. Everything goes quiet. It was over in a heartbeat. See? It was over in a heartbeat. It’s broken like a jar of gleaming black oyster sauce, creeping along the floor, oozing into the cracks between the boards.
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