soft and tired

I was trying to be a lawyer. I carried a telephone in my hand and it grew heavy in the afternoon. In my first court hearing there was a handcuffed prostitute sitting in one of the seats. I was young and my shoes were unpolished. I looked at the prostitute. My masters took me to McDonalds afterwards. They closed their eyes and said I am tired. They did not see the prostitute. Prostitutes are everywhere. My face was young and they commented on it. I touched my food. We need you to polish your shoes next time. I disappeared in a big car and someone called me. The afternoons were always heavy.

***

One day my mother disappeared. My sisters were very small and they looked at me. My brother played basketball in the afternoon and he was tired. I think you should do something. Anything. We walked to the beach and forgot to bring water. Everyone was thirsty and quiet. My mother came back three days later and buried a talisman made out of human hair and eggshells in the front yard. Your father will come back because of this. My brother screamed at her but no sound came out of his mouth. He was very tired.

***

There was a big flood. I was 7 and I ran away from some children as part of a game. I imagined that they would hurt me if they caught me. They had plastic baseball bats. I jumped into the flood and I did not know how to swim. My mother told me that there were many bad men in the local swimming pool and that they would touch me so I did not want to learn. I did not want to be touched. I held on to a broken table floating in the water. A nail jutting out from the table went through my hand. I wanted to cry but I was too tired. A boat stopped by me and a man asked me to swim towards him. I shook my head and he looked very tired.



Future Story


Something that involves tired people.