Demons in the Spring by Joe Meno

Author:Joe Meno
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Akashic Books
Published: 2010-03-03T05:00:00+00:00

We don’t usually go to this particular movie theater because it’s always pretty sad. The floor is sticky with spilled pop and the seats are almost always broken. I look up and notice that the movie has started. In it, a man and woman are arguing. The movie is black-and-white, subtitled. Now they are kissing, and the kids behind us are hooting and whistling, and as the couple onscreen begins to undress, Sophie leans over and says she wants to leave.

We make it to the parking lot without saying another word. “Why did you want to leave?” I ask.

“I didn’t want to see that movie anyway.”

“Okay.”

“We shouldn’t have even bothered,” she mumbles, pulling on her seat belt.

I don’t know what to say to that, so I don’t say anything for a while. All I come up with is, “I don’t know why you’re mad at me. I didn’t do anything.”

“I don’t know why I’m mad at you either, but I am,” she says.

We drive home defeated, momentarily, by just about everything. The city glitters past us with its sharp edges, reminding us of how tiny, how weak, how totally unimportant we are. When we get back to the apartment, we don’t know whose neighborhood it is anymore: Everything looks suspicious and bombed-out. Everything looks like a movie set of an ugly block. There is graffiti all over the place, tags upon tags. We don’t care really. We’re only staying here another year. We still feel angry at each other about something, though. When we unlock the front door that night, it doesn’t sound like the end of an argument. It doesn’t sound like an apology.

Sophie decides she has had enough and goes to take a bath. From the bedroom, I listen to the faucet running, the sound of her stepping into the tub, the soft splash of her moving beneath the water. I knock on the door. She doesn’t answer. I knock once more, still no answer. I touch the doorknob and find it is unlocked. I step inside, close the door behind me, and without thinking, I start to undress, before Sophie can begin to argue. Our tub is small—it barely fits one person—so I sit behind her and put my arms around her neck. I realize we have not been naked together for what feels like a long time, a couple of months now maybe. It feels weird and sad and exciting. Sophie turns around and puts some shampoo in my hair. She starts working it in using her fingertips, smiling at me. Silently, I begin to wonder if we will ever find anything funny again. I think about the pink notebook from the girl at the bus stop, which has been sitting in my briefcase for almost two months now. I think about how much time will have to pass before I can show it to her, how much longer it will be before we will be able to laugh about all kinds of stupid things. After she washes the soap out of my hair, Sophie turns and looks at me.

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