Untitled - ScholarWorks Home - California State University, Northridge

As you return to your room, you are struck by the whizzing sound of
wind blowing through the palm trees. There has been talk of a storm coming,
and the sheets on the clotheslines have been twisted into swinging, cocoon-like
bundles. As you turn a corner, you nearly fall over a shovel that is propped
against the building. You hesitate before picking it up, wondering if the resi­
dent will know you have touched it. You drop it and run.
You are floating in the sea, the long curls of your hair spread out like the
arms of an octopus. The sun is low. You like this, the taste of salt, which is like blood.
You imagine your body being carried away by the waves fa rther out, your skin white
against slippery brown kelp.
At night when he appears in silhouette, you begin to convulse, your
head filling with whirling sounds -you open your eyes, and the light in the
room is reversed - it looks like a photo-negative. Your insides lunge and you
feel as if you are leaving your body, your self being torn out against your will.
You are pulled toward the silhouette. You turn and see your body in the bed,
hair glowing white against grey skin, bucking wildly as the man outside
watches you through the window. The venetian blinds tear at your skin; they
slice through you as you grab the window's frame, begging not to go.
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