Thursday, March 31, 2011

Masticate

masticate\ MAS-tih-kayt \, transitive verb: To grind or crush with or as if with the teeth in preparation for swallowing and digestion; to chew

It all started with the olives and how they sat there, immersed in the mixture of brown vinegar and shards of rosemary, in a pool. Or, who was she kidding, it started with the red, red cherry at the bottom of the martini glass, juicy with alcohol, the last candy at the bottom of the jar. And then how it all spilled onto the table, her clumsiness insurmountable. And he so quick to tell her so. Nevertheless the puddle spread and began its slow decent to the floor in drops and rivulets. The rosemary falling like canoes over a waterfall. No one would have survived. With a drawn sigh, he walks to the kitchen to retrieve the paper towels which will soak up her drunkard's mess. She could not swallow his disdain. No throat can stretch to fit the ocean. And because she is in the state to do so, she fluidly removes her shirt by lifting it with arms crossed over her head and throws it to the floor. As the fabric touches down, like a parachute from the sky, the brown liquid seeps through the white shirt and the coloring could be mistaken for rusty water, old blood. And before he can return from the kitchen to balk at what she has done, she leaves it all there and stumbles to the bedroom and onto the bed, face down, arms above her head, as if she is diving. When he starts to yell, she imagines that she is a child again, holding herself under water in the deep end of the pool, where anyone's voice can only reach her as a far-off echo, and her body feels weightless.