- Lisa
- Richard
- Lizzie
- Serendipidy
- Norval Joe
- Tom
- Planet Z
LISA
The Carer
“It’s me!” I hear after a rattle of the key in my lock.
It doesn’t tell me much does it? An endless troupe of people through my door. I wouldn’t mind if they were just here to chat but they feed me too and it seems like an invasion.
They open my curtains when I want to sleep. Make me tea when I don’t feel thirsty. Bathe me when I’d rather not be naked in front of a stranger.
“It’s me!” They say it again as they fill my kettle. A woman’s voice. “Mum, can you hear me? It’s me…”
RICHARD
— It’s me —
“It’s not you, it’s me.”
Well tell me something I didn’t know! And it doesn’t exactly make me feel any better about breaking up!
Of course it was her. She’d never made any effort in our relationship, leaving me to work my butt off to try and make it succeed.
Now she wanted to end it, finally admitting she was at fault.
“I’m sorry.” I said. “But I’m not prepared to lose you. You really think that you’re in charge… but, it’s not you, it’s me!”
She protested of course, but it didn’t stop me handcuffing her to the radiator.
LIZZIE
It’s me. I’m the one who wrote that. When you look at me, you’ll know what it’s like to be me. But you don’t look. You don’t. You’re inside yourself in a world of fantasy that exists only in your head. A chosen blindness that makes everything collapse. But you’re not worried. No. You prefer it this way. You are you, and everyone else is not real. So, when you look in the mirror, you will pretend to find out what it’s like to be me, and I’ll say “that is me”. But you won’t know, and you won’t care.
TOM
Shibboleth
It’s me! Cried Benny. Silence. “Come on Rudy open the gate.” A slot appeared in the door and a note poked out. Benny read it. “I don’t remember the password. We change the password all the time.” Silence. “OK cupcake-tornado. Silence. A second note appear. “What do you mean last week?” It’s me, Rudy, your brother-in law. Silence. A third note appeared. Benny crumpled the paper. “I have no idea who Linda’s second grade teach was.” The sun was dipping into the horizon, not a good time to be in Zombie Ally. Benny slid a 100-pound note under the door.
SERENDIPIDY
That noise you hear in the dead of night, all cosy in your bed. The noise that stirs you into sweaty wakefulness, confused and fearful as you strain to hear, wondering if it’s just your imagination, or if somebody else really is in the house.
That’s answered soon enough, when you hear the slow, muffled drag of footsteps along the hallway, the creak of the loose floorboard outside your bedroom door.
With horror, you stare as the doorknob slowly turns, the sweat on your brow turning cold, the fear building into terror.
The door swings open.
I’m here.
It’s me!
NORVAL JOE
Billbert woke to someone shaking his foot and shouted in surprise.
“Billbert. Calm down. It’s me, Dad. Your mother had to go to work early, and you kids need to get up and go to school.”
Linoliamanda rubbed her eyes. “I don’t have any clean clothes.”
Sabrina glared at Billbert when he said, “Mom bought Sabrina tons of new clothes yesterday. I’m sure you can use some of them.”
Sabrina shook her head. “She’s too skinny for my clothes.”
Linoliamanda glared at the other girl. “I’m not that skinny!”
Sabrina looked Linoliamanda up and down. “Well, parts of you are.”
PLANET Z
Back in grade school, regular milk was five cents, chocolate milk was six.
My mother would give my brother a dime and tell him to buy a regular milk for each of us.
Instead, he bought chocolate milk, pocketed the change, and threatened to beat the shit out of me if I said anything.
I would steal nickels and pennies from my father’s coin collection, which I got beaten for.
Then I said why. And my brother got beaten.
Which got me beaten again.
I keep a jar of spare change, and I shake it to clear the memories away.