Chickpea
2009-09-22 17:59:16 UTC
“Edna. Come here.”
I stood and set my half-eaten Froot Loops on the end table. The bathroom door was slightly cracked and I could see steam curling it's fingers around the edges.
“Yeah?” I said as I pushed the door open.
She lay submerged to the chin in the bathtub. I stared in wonder at her nakedness. I'd never really seen a naked person before and found myself mystified by the differences between us. My body was straight and without definition where hers was curvy and soft. My secret places were as bald as the desert earth where hers harbored jungles of dark hair. The skin of her breasts shone angrily, scalded by the steaming water.
The rim of the tub was covered in broken shards of pink plastic from the shaver she'd mangled. She slowly turned her head and looked at me.
“Edna, tell your father his supper is in the oven.”
She reached into the mess of broken plastic and rummaged until she found a tiny, twisted shard of razor. Her thumbs cried large, lazy drops of blood from the cuts she'd given herself trying to free the small piece of metal. She didn't seem to notice. I couldn't take my eyes off of them as they fell into the water, tiny thunderheads swirling.
“Where will you be, Mommy?” I asked, confused. She smiled at me.
“Wherever it is, dear, I hope they have room-service.” She chuckled lightly and jabbed the twisted razor into her wrist, opening the flesh down to her elbow like a curtain, exposing the strange and mysterious world inside. Before her blood even began pouring darkly forward, she had lain open the other arm.