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a girl narnedlouise: just \

before" :the·bathroonl

and a'rter "the accident

,.

. (cut from a book··in··progress about eggs, birds, and !iQilt>

,'j'ake friedman

;

Louise's:head bobbed·up. She had stopped paying attention .;~
for'what'seemed to.be jractions of a ~econd when she
realized she had Los t time, She found herself sitting on
what served to heI; as a bench,. smoking, and having 'no

discernible thoughts about anything except the man on the

bus and h~s eyes. She felt like sh~'had been wandering

through the day ,:only to' gain self-awareness at some

arbitrary pOint in time. Louise had caught the world

becoming, became, herself, and left behind whatever used to
be even ,though everything was still there.

It left a kind of ill wind as it passed, by, nothing

rancid or rank, only this kind of unsettling. Louise felt

~ike something was wrong, like there was something going

on she wasn't in on. Eve ry.t hLnq began to feel like one
big'trick, like there.was,something hiding'behind all

these surfaces, lurking underneath and making ripples,

and everything was ·surfaces. Louise felt like there was

somebody sitting next to her, somebody looking at her but

not saying anything. That Louise hadn't seen it until, now,

just standing there, observing, .ai LerrtLy , and Louise could

yell ai it all she wanted to, but·it would never answer with
anythirig'~xcep~ dead s~are6 and dead silence,' it terrified .

her. How Lonq , Louise thought 'to herself,. how long rrad this.
v

stranger been living with her? '

She shuddered. It was evil, sinister, she thohght to
.herself. ·She.~raised a jiggling' cigarette to her lips and
,sucked, trying to relax as she' di.d. What if it, was no'thi.nq,

she thought. Her eyes bugged open. Loui~e felt absolute

',terror like a little girl lost in the mall', so scared she

couldn't movs , just this tiny .Lit t Le .human animal all alone'·
in a flashing, noisy world.

Louise's mputh went dry. She began to feel nauseous. And
she. stayed ,like t hi scf or a few more drags until, somewhere,
Louise de'ci ded that she was just,de-hydrated and an she

needed was something to drink. 'She would pop into the

n~arest convenience store and buy herself a cold drink.

At least until she could find some alcohol. She had money,

didn't she? She checked;' opening her wallet and running a

finger across the Li.t'tle greeri edges of paper. Yep, she had
plenty of it.