Nightscript: Volume 6 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chthonic Matter
Published: 2020-09-30T22:00:00+00:00

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When the doorbell rings, the apartment is tidy and the quesadillas are just beginning to brown on one side, the white cheese spilling and sizzling. Susan is heavier, more haggard than Marie remembers, closer to fifty than forty. Her brows shade her eyes.

She and Marie embrace, and the taxi driver helps them bring in four suitcases and a large object with a light green cover that reminds Marie of a bird’s cage. Marie almost asks about it, but then they are tipping the driver and seeing him out, and Susan is going on about the smell of the food, and so they make their way to the breakfast bar and begin the meal.

Susan asks Marie to remind her about what she does for work, and Marie speaks on this topic at some length. She has worked backward from today to the last two years and is discussing her master’s degrees by the time she recognizes that they have almost finished eating.

“I’m so sorry,” she says. “I’ve been living alone for so long I’ve come to believe I’m the only person on earth, apparently. Forgive me, and please, tell me how you are doing at work and otherwise.”

Susan’s eyes shift down and then up again to meet Marie’s. She says, “I’ve been thinking what to say to that question.”

“You’ve been all right, I hope,” says Marie.

“Oh, yes. Work is fine. I’ve been so excited to move in.”

“And I to have you.”

“Yes. I’ve been imagining myself here, and I know we said that I would take the little bedroom, but whenever I’ve imagined myself here . . . ”

“Yes?”

“Well, I’ve seen myself in the little nook. You know, I’ll get up at night more often than you, I think. And you might need privacy, or anyway it’s more right that you have privacy.”

“I want you to have the bedroom,” Marie says.

“And I really, really want the nook,” Susan says. Marie can’t see her eyes.

A sound comes from the nook where the suitcases are standing. Marie feels a sharp increase in her heart rate, feels she might faint off the stool, and tries to stand. Susan is standing and crossing the dim room, bending toward the green cover that Marie sees now is a light blanket. She slides the blanket to the side, and Marie sees kicking feet. The baby announces itself in wails. Susan holds its tiny body to her chest and turns to begin her explanations.

“I need to stay in the nook because I need to get up in the night and, I don’t know . . . There is a little more room for him in the nook. Please, please don’t put us out,” she says. Her voice hitches, and Marie thinks she will cry, but she doesn’t.

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