100 Proof

She handled truth like she would have minced over gravel, brow furrowed, never letting on foot linger too long on the surface. He was the only one who saw it, saw the way she made her way through it all. He watched her ignore smooth sidewalks, choosing the difficult path every time. At night, he drew maps for her, sent her directions, wished for her to find her way honestly. At night, he waited by the window, watching the road below, until the light started to turn grey, the way it does just before dawn.

We all have something we want to fall for, she said. Sometimes it’s just the mystery of the other person’s words.

She raised a glass and winked.

I don’t know what that’s all about, he said. Is there something in your eye?

The bartender brought the check without asking whether they were finished. They dealt fives and tens into the leather folder, both of them already thinking ahead to who they would rather flirt with next.

Replacing her feet with wheels seemed like such a good idea. At first, she sped to every destination. And once she got the hang of it, her dance-floor spinning and looping made everyone else look so, well, pedestrian.

But then he tried to kiss her on a hill, and she slipped away from him, no matter how hard they tried to stay connected. Eventually he gave up and left her clinging to a fence along the sidewalk. Without him, she doubted she could muster enough momentum to crest the hill.

Though the wind howled outside, they remained at peace with the situation. Inside, there was tea and brandy, cookies and cheese, several candles and a large, sleepy dog. She curled up against him, he draped an arm over her. They had finished dinner hours ago and still felt sated. Whatever that fight had been about earlier, it seemed irrelevant now, blown away like leaves, like branches, like garbage cans, like yesterday.

One might break their ankle crossing train tracks in these shoes.

If the water has been poisoned by terrorists, one might suffer terribly in the last moments.

It might only take one volcano eruption to trap everyone in their countries for days on end.

This was what crossed her mind in these anxiety-ridden days, in these times of worst-case scenarios that never failed to come true.

Her head whirled like a small bird trapped in a room, her heart beat like that bird’s heart. She hovered over each step of preparation before spinning away to the next.

Still, when the door opened, she realized her mistake. His eyes were the color of steel; he would never open a window for her escape.

Too flat for sledding, she thought as she dragged a snow tube to the center of the field and lay down in it. She had moved to the cold center of the continent without realizing the magnitude of the trade: here, there was only a snow ocean, and the only sand crunched underneath her boots and tires.

She stared up at the milky sky, heels dug into the drifts beneath her. She imagined driving in a straight line toward either coast until the water accepted her back like a prodigal daughter.