There's an incline in the floor a few feet from the sink. A cliff, potentially. F puts her brother Ronny down next to the car and goes to sit up on the hill. She tells him to sit still and be careful. She says "king me". The hill is tiled. In the valley the floor is concrete. F's guardians don't like it when she comes out here because of a radioactive ghost. It hunts at a close circle around the house. If she comes here too often, everyone will know, because the ghost is
radioactive. Around the sink there are piss stains from the porcelain. It's chained there. All the way in the corner far away from the house door there's a puddle. The sink can't reach the door ever. F says "king me" to her brother although he can't speak. She is under orders to keep him safe. She doesn't let him up the hill. She will never let
him up the hill so he will never fall down. The carpet on the hill is stain-proofed and made of a blue that is found in plucked feathers. Ronny is a sweet boy against the plaster. He is F's brother so of course she has always loved him. He could also be porcelain. It is possible. The rain pools up on the floor in the corner closest to the
house. It's so dreary every afternoon. It's been raining for days. It patters on the small window panes in the big door to the outside. Soon F thinks she will die of thinned out blood. Ronny won't be able to warn anyone. He can't talk. It is possible that the walls and the floor are made out of the same material. Even in dry weather they repel air. F leans up against the air between herself and the wall.
She is careful not to puncture the air. She is careful not to let too much in. She waits for Ronny to fall asleep. His head nods in all directions, finally lolls. Then of all the things she can hear, she can't hear anything from the inside. She slides down the mountain, passes her brother and the sink and goes to the corner. She pulls her shorts down to her ankles and sits into the puddle. It is shaped like a ghost. It is radioactive. She can hear the wind going. She is not
actually allowed to touch the puddle. She doesn't care. She watches to make sure Ronny doesn't wake up. She squats into the water. It is cool against F's seat. She doesn't know why it feels so thick. She hovers there until all the things look different. The car gets a halo. It is less dreary. F starts to shake. The water shakes too. She creates lovely circles. F wants a water snake with perfectly decreasing
intervals down its tube to come out from under her. She wouldn't scream. She isn't supposed to scream. She would tie it into a knot, let it sit next to her until it was dark out or until she had to bring her brother all the way inside.

puddle

allison carter