Tag Archives: rain

The Philosopher on His Deathbed

I found the angel dangling from the end of her halo, her limp body suspended by the prettiest cloud in the sky.

 

She was still alive, I noticed, as I hurriedly untied the knots in her halo.

 

I collected her wispy body and crinkled halo and vanished into my apartment. I didn’t know what I was going to do with the angel. I wanted to nourish her but I also wanted to eat her. So I placed her on my blue velvet couch and watched her.

 

She slept the way you sleep after something traumatic happens. Was her trauma her attempted suicide or all that preceded it? I could never know.

 

The sky darkened because it wanted its angel back. It crackled and groaned, but still she slept, her chest rising and falling slightly in response to some life still stirring inside her.

 

The rain came and her cloud pounded on my window. “Don’t make me go back there,” she whispered. “I hate it.”

 

I pressed my vial of antidepressants into her hand. She sat up and forced a smile.

 

Then she took her halo and smoothed it out before placing it several inches above her head, where it stayed.


A General Hegemony

Six months had passed since I put her portrait in the trunk of my car.

“Why is this still in here,” she asked not long after, her hands full of groceries. “So I always have you in my trunk,” I replied.

But her portrait–all glamour and heavy eye make-up–soon became covered in dust and the fine wood frame in which she was encased became scuffed.

Still, I was so used to her back there that the thought of hanging her on the wall was mildly unnerving.

We had a fight two days ago. She accused me of stealing her old wedding ring to finance my cocaine habit.

I called her three times. I sent twelve text messages.

Silence.

I opened the trunk yesterday morning to fetch my umbrella. I gave her portrait a knowing look, thinking, “What the fuck is your problem?” That’s when I noticed that her previously immaculate smile was now twisted into a scream.

“Well if she’s dead,” I said to myself, “now’s the time to steal her wedding ring.”

When she was found this afternoon in the trunk of a new Mercedes I felt mildly guilty, though I didn’t really know why: Fucking rich people.