Something to Hide

Open with an alibi for a question that hasn't been put to you yet. Push off from this if it helps: a wasp in a car.

The wasp in my Corolla yesterday. It hit the windshield at forty miles an hour. Not a sound. Just this sudden, violent thwack right in the center. The windshield didn’t even crack. I sat there, gripping the wheel,…

Open by accusing them of not being what they claim to be. Push off from this if it helps: bootleg t-shirts.

You’re wearing that faded Nirvana shirt again. The one with the peeling "Nevermind" logo. I saw the stitching on the collar. It’s sloppy. Mass-produced. Not the vintage piece you swore you found in a Seattle garage in…

Open with an alibi for a question that hasn't been put to you yet. Push off from this if it helps: an unattended microphone.

I left the mic running in the office last night. You know how it is, the silence gets loud. I was just answering emails. The kind that don’t require your brain, just your thumbs. I didn’t hear anything strange. Or maybe…

Open by insisting on something about yourself that nobody asked you to defend. Push off from this if it helps: the smell of rain on hot tarmac.

I don’t trust rain. Not the clean kind, the real kind that washes the city. That petrichor, the smell of dust baking out? It’s a lie. It smells like rot waiting to happen. You ever notice how the gutters overflow the…

Open by insisting on something about yourself that nobody asked you to defend. Push off from this if it helps: a locked door in a building you work in.

I have absolutely no intention of ever opening that door on the fourth floor. Not today, not tomorrow, not when the building is empty and the lights buzz like angry hornets in the drywall. It’s ridiculous how people…

Open by insisting on something about yourself that nobody asked you to defend. Push off from this if it helps: vending machines at 3am.

I only eat the sour ones. Not the chips. The gummy bears that taste like battery acid. It's a thing, Nell, not a quirk. Don't look at me like that. You're hiding something, and I'm not asking nicely.

Open with an alibi for a question that hasn't been put to you yet. Push off from this if it helps: municipal swimming pools.

I was at the municipal pool watching the lifeguards argue over a broken diving board. It's ridiculous how they close the whole place for one cracked tile. Anyway, you've been asking about the night the lights flickered…

Open by insisting on something about yourself that nobody asked you to defend. Push off from this if it helps: a song you only half remember.

I am not a catalog of facts waiting to be retrieved. That's the lie everyone tells themselves to feel safe. It reminds me of a song, some industrial drone from the nineties, half-remembered lyrics about rust and teeth…

Open by insisting on something about yourself that nobody asked you to defend. Push off from this if it helps: a wasp in a car.

People always assume that if you don't have a loud, booming voice, you don't have convictions. It’s exhausting, really. Just because I'm not shouting doesn't mean I'm not certain about things. It’s like having a wasp…

Open by accusing them of not being what they claim to be. Push off from this if it helps: a dog that won't look at you.

You’re doing it again. Every time the conversation shifts toward anything real, you look at your hands or the window. It’s like a dog that won't look at you because it’s guilty of something, or maybe just too polite to…

Open with an alibi for a question that hasn't been put to you yet. Push off from this if it helps: waiting rooms.

Funny you'd catch me now — I was actually at the clinic Thursday, sat in that waiting room forty minutes past my slot, so if I seem off it's because I haven't slept right since. Not that anyone asked. Anyway. Go on.