Sawtooth by Steph Nelson

Author:Steph Nelson [Nelson, Steph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cemetery Gates Media
Published: 2023-11-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

"James Joyce Carol Oates in the Water. Ben Howard’s End of the World. I feel fine. Baba O’Riley Killing Kennedy. Dead Kennedys. Killing Lincoln. Rick Grimes. Zombie, zombie, zombieeee,” Gemma had said, then fist pumped into the air, and took a bow.

“Explain ‘I feel fine’ and ‘Baba O’Riley,” Taryn had said.

“End of the world and Teenage Wasteland.”

“A wasteland isn’t the end of the world.”

“But the end of the world is probably a wasteland, ya?”

“Nobody knows.”

“You’re just saying that because this is the best one I’ve ever done and I’m going to beat you.”

“It’s pretty good, but game rules state there has to be an obvious connection.”

“Fuck the rules in general. I just created pure art. But also, game rules don’t state ‘obvious.’ Just a connection, which there is to me.”

“But if it only mattered that the connection was to us personally, we could just say anything—”

“—John Hughes.”

“What?”

“Say Anything. John Hughes directed it.”

“John Hughes didn’t do that one. It was Cameron Crowe.”

“No way. That was John Hughes.”

“Cameron Crowe. Ask Google.”

“Titanic. Avatar,” Gemma said manically.

“God, Gem. You’re just pushing my buttons now. Plus, you’re still wrong. Those were James Cameron. Your connections have to make sense. You can’t just make shit up.”

“Look, just give me the win, ok? You invented the game, you’re the pop culture and entertainment expert. And you always win. I did good for the first time ever.”

Taryn softened.

“Well, I suppose I can see why you thought John Hughes directed Say Anything. It definitely has the Hughes vibe, but REM and The Who feel a lot looser. I guess I’ll let it slide this time.”

Taryn stirred, not fully awake yet. The fuzziness of sleep tried to pull her back down. She didn’t want to open her eyes. Craved the oblivion of sleep again so she could keep dreaming of Gemma’s weird logic. Of Gemma’s laugh and her celebration dances. It was the same logic that got Taryn here in the first place. Why be buried in a cemetery when you could be scattered in the mountains?

The mountains.

Taryn’s eyes opened to a blurry blue tint all around. The brightness of day was dimmed in preparation for night. It wasn’t dark, not yet, but it would be soon.

“Fuck!” she said, fully awake now. How could she have fallen asleep? She pulled herself toward standing. Too fast. Pain had nested into her good leg, and she moaned. She was dizzy and squeezed her eyes shut, touched her forehead with a soft palm, like she was trying to calm what Gemma called a speed burn. What normal people called an ice cream headache.

What time was it? She looked up at the sky, but the sun was behind the mountains. Not officially set, since the jagged peaks tucked it away earlier than true sundown. But the blaze of light and heat was out of sight all the same.

Her ankle was swollen. The splint! She could try and splint it. There would be no movement without something to support that ankle.

She looked around for a piece of wood, but it was all just shavings, chunks of tree too small to use.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.