If I Had Two Wings: Stories by Randall Kenan

Author:Randall Kenan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2020-05-21T00:00:00+00:00

Resurrection Hardware or, Lard & Promises

for Alexa

I heard him before I felt his presence or saw him. A panting, a mild groaning as if from pain. I seem to remember a smell, a smell like an animal when in extreme fear—or perhaps that is simply something I filled in after thinking back upon that morning so many times. I do vividly remember the way the light poured in. The windows were all new and gleaming; the room a bone-white I’d admired and copied from certain museums I’d visited in the countryside of France. He was not hiding in the curtains, but rather on the floor, crouched, the gossamer fabric poorly hiding his dark skin. And he was so very dark. I could see him panting, his body not quite heaving but rising and falling as if in distress. A quilt, made by my mother, was folded at the foot of my bed. That is what I used to cover his nakedness and urge him into bed. He relented, eyeing me somewhat panicked, yet soothed by and by. I petted him, cradled him. After a spell I went down to make coffee and to think what to do.

When I returned with two steaming mugs he was gone. I’ve never had a problem sleeping in bright sunlight. Upon reawaking, I found the only evidence of his having been there—or of my believing he had been there—was the two mugs of cold coffee.

“It was a dream, brother.”

I doubt it.

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