Category: writing

Mi Ahn

He awoke in the fuzzy pink floor chair. Head in the seat the rest of his body outstretched on the new carpet. The veggie knife next to his head, he wonders why it is there. Arching his back into a bridge, settling his bones like a cat, he looks at his surroundings. Seeing the numerous empty green soju bottles scattered on the floor and table. A sharp pain rockets inside his temple, he needs water and a hangover cure. A memory floats through his head like a movie, two people in tears. His heart cringes with the memory of their wounded faces.

“We love you! We can’t keep allowing yourself to drink your life away.”

“Don’t lie! You don’t love me! No one actually likes me!”

There is no turning back now. He normally acts like he forgets what happens when he’s drunk. Most people believe him, they are no match for his self-delusions. He gets up, steadying himself, and sees if he can find his lovers. Looking through the different rooms he’s shocked to be unable to find them. Each of them had their own personal room because they were their own person. They shared the house and everything else, but they had their own room when they needed to be alone. Seems like an interesting way to live right? He didn’t like it, his lovers were very much into being their own person. They loved him wholeheartedly but still knew how to be themselves. This is actually why he loved them, that they were so comfortable with themselves. Something he’s still learning.

“Maybe they decided to go grocery shopping. I’ll just call them.”

Self-delusion. More memories float into his head. Flashes of him yelling and crying. The two of them crying and talking to him softly, stroking his wrists. Petting him like a child who’s found out what death is for the first time. Another flash finding the two of them in bed cradling each other, in her room. She’s crying.

“We were having such a great dinner. He cooked both of our favorites. I don’t understand how it turned out like this.”

He walks in; knife in hand placing the blade on the other man’s neck. Getting in bed with them he puts his legs over both of theirs. 

“What if I kill you guys right now? I wouldn’t let you guys leave without me though, don’t worry.” he said.

“You don’t have the balls. You couldn’t kill us. All you do is make these dramatic ploys for attention. Which, by the way, don’t make any sense because everything already revolves around you.” He liked the vibrations he felt as the man said this to him. Was he right?

He moves the knife onto her now. Dragging the blade on her left breast onto her stomach. Their little pea has been growing nicely, she’s even gotten plump growing her. He then moves the knife onto her face staring into her eyes as he slides it down her cheek. There was no fear, just anger, and exhaustion. 

He had tried to call both of their cell phones four or five times by now. All the memories of last night making the pit in his stomach feel heavier. What a terrible mistake he made last night. What a horrible person he is. How had they stayed with him for so long? He remembers that last night was a special occasion. It was their third anniversary, the three of them. Jack and he had been together for six years now, but Molly had been with them for three. He goes to his room and realizes for the first time that his room was the one that they shared the most. It was a perfect combination of all of them. Molly’s love for art and culture decorates the walls. Jack’s  love for creating a safe and balanced space made the room seem bigger than it was. His contribution to the room are the different knick knacks he collected from his trips overseas. They all had an impressive collection of language books, two and a half bookshelves full.

“Honey!! We’re home!” Said Jack and Molly in unison. Crashing into the apartment with excitement.

“I smell samgyapsal!!” said Molly

“I smell buckwheat noodles and kimchi!” said Jack

“Welcome home!” He said giving them both a long kiss. “What you are smelling is correct. There are pieces of pork belly ready to eat and delicious Korean dishes to go with it! Happy Anniversary!” 

The three of them sitting down on the blue and white carpet, making themselves comfortable. He gets two shot glasses for Jack and himself. and a soju from the freezer.  

“I thought we decided that we’d stop drinking altogether, for the baby?” Jack said raising an eyebrow at him. 

“Today is a special occasion!!! Let’s celebrate, it’s not like we drink every day.”

“You do though. Every meal.” Jack said

“This is different. We are celebrating!”

“Ok. I won’t argue today. Only one bottle though, ok?” Jack said 

“That’s all we need!”

There was an answer. Four hours of trying to call them and they finally answer.

“Hey! We were at the doctor. Today was another sonogram. We found out the sex!!” said Molly

He couldn’t hold it in any longer. He broke down in tears gasping for air ever so often.

“I thought you guys left. I thought you weren’t coming back.”

“We love you. You think we’d do that without some kind of note or something? We will be talking though. Once we get home. We’ll hold the good news for afterward.” Molly said.

There was shifting and weird sounds until Jack’s voice came through the phone.

“I told her that you wouldn’t remember that we had a doctor’s appointment. I knew you’d worry. I think this was her way of getting back at you slightly. Serves you right.”

He sniffed “mi ahn ha da”

“jir dao ah. woo men ai ni.” jack said

“I love you.”

“I love you more.” Jack said

“I love you like the stars that have shined before, forever.” Molly said. .  . . .

 

Doormat

She knocked on my door like she always did

Ghost like

Nothing to do, why not hang out with a friend

She knows I don’t see her as a friend

We pretend

I tried to quiet my heart

Unable to stop it’s talking when she was near

She just wanted sleep

She could have gone home

She could have done something more productive

Alas, here she is in my bed sleeping

I play the music loud to drown out my heart

She can’t hear either

Me liking her makes no sense

We’d never be compatible

Then I watch her breathe

How peaceful she looks

I watch as she takes a breath

Follow the flow of oxygen

In through her nose

Symmetrical with her lips

Always slightly chapped

Like how she’s always slightly hungry

Down her long tanned neck

Her chest moves with life

Always sighing in sleep

Then she wakes up blinking at me

Caught

She stares into my eyes

Forcing me to fidget

She has an amazing person

I try to remind myself

We’ve been friends for long

Not love, just infatuation

Memories

When we said ‘I love you’

As friends

Next to her gravitational pull

I have pictures

My lips her kneck

My lips her thighs

My lips between her

She’s just a friend

I’m just a doormat with a bed

One that always says ‘Welcome Home’

 

 

What is lonely?

She remembers this feeling. It’s nothing new, a decade ago she felt it too. Restless, disappointed, and scared. Still having trouble with fixing these issues. She used to wonder how people acted the way they did, how they kept moving. She hasn’t been able to shake the feeling of uselessness as she wonders once again the point to anything. She has been staring at her phone, that cost her more than her rent, realizing that no one was going to text her. Even if they did text her or call what would she even talk about? How she is stuck? That she knows soon everyone will be gone doing great things, while she’s still here doing nothing. Or, how about her fear of doing things because after putting all that effort in you didn’t even enjoy it? Talk about the empty? It doesn’t matter, so she sits. Or, rather, lies on her bed staring at the ceiling. Thinking about how much time is left on this earth for her. It weighs upon her chest and makes her want to do something.

“Twenty-four years is so long. I feel so tired. I haven’t even done or seen much. Nothing has happened to me. However, I’m over it. There are people who’ve done and seen so much. Someone could do great with this life. I really wish it wasn’t given to me.” She thinks.

She decides it’s too quiet, that was what was wrong. She puts on some music which does nothing but reminds her of the past. She wraps the music around her like the comfort blanket it is. She stops hearing music and only sees pictures. The different people she liked. The different people she tried to befriend. The realization that she never learned to connect with anyone.

Her eyes grow heavy and she accepts that none of this will change. All because of her. It all goes black to the perfect world called sleep. Her phone lighting up and singing goodnight.

 

How to Feel

I tried to grab her

All I got was air

She left the way I knew she would

What to do?

Now that the light is gone

I’m here empty

Is this how an empty husk feels?

Forced to exist

Having no reason to

Not wanting to

You woke up though

Seize the day, is it?

Your purpose in life is not to die

Even if that is all you are thinking

Mine

I called her my wife

We only knew each other for two short weeks

I probably sensed it then

We were from the same cloth

 

It was rare to see me without her

Her without me

In her car, eating food, walking anywhere

I told everyone that she was mine

 

We never dated

We were just always together

All those lesbians eyeing her could go to hell

I claimed her

 

I lost her though

She told me the truth

I was the only one that had nothing going on

Crying on my bed she tells me of her ex-girlfriend

 

She gave no inkling

Nor any promises

It was just my selfishness

They broke up. This changes nothing

 

She lays on my bed

Hands above her head

An invisible rope around her wrists

She deserves a punishment for straying

 

I tell her that she’s mine. She can never get away.

 

 

 

 

 

Gone

She had wrapped herself for me. I did not open it on the day. When I came to retrieve her next day the ribbon was untied. Someone had stolen my present. Was it more that she ran away?

Choice

TheLovelyPenelope's avatar

She sat down in the leather seat, petting. Soft brown leather prepared, to tell the truth, this time. The older man in front of her pale and gray, legs crossed, judging. She has, to tell the truth, but where to start.

“How are you feeling today? Anything you want to talk about?” He says while opening up his notepad.

“I don’t know. I don’t have much to talk about. I haven’t really been doing much. Work, sleep, eat, repeat. The days I have off seem endless yet too short.”

“What do you do on your days off? Do you do anything that  you want to enjoy?”

“Well, nothing really. Everything sucks and I’m broke. What is there to do? So, I stay home and watch movies or stupid television shows. Anything that doesn’t have to do with reality because I avoid the things that I don’t like. I watch the things that I want to do and feel but dare not go after.”

“Why do you feel that  you shouldn’t go after them? What stops you from enjoying these things?”

“For one, I don’t deserve them. I also have learned at an early age wanting things and actually getting them normally ends badly. The path there sucked, you get there and it sucks still. Relationships, goals, life in general at least that what it feels like. Who knows maybe I’m wrong but then that just proves further that I don’t belong here. I’m pretty sure there has been some mistake.”

“Relationships. Let’s talk more about that, which one of your relationships have made you fee this way? Who was it and when was it?”

“I remember it well, it was when I knew that living with my father was never an option. It’s also when I knew his truth without anyone telling me. Something he would not admit to me until I was sixteen or seventeen years old.

I was about six years old, excited because it was Daddy’s night. I get to sleep over the big blue house, I would get real television, no bunny ears, be away from my mom, see my grandpa. It was going to be great it would be everything that I wanted. Daddy wanted to get something from the corner store. I’ve always liked car rides so I’m excited to go with him. When we get there is this man there. Wearing all white with a long Santa beard, saying hello to my father. My father says hi back and tells him to come over to the car to meet me. He tells my dad that he can’t, his feet are stuck but hello little one. I tell my dad we should just go, that the man isn’t right. Even though being a sheltered child I knew danger when I saw it. I knew that if my dad went over to that man, his feet would get stuck too. My dad didn’t listen to me, he went to the fake Santa they talked for a while, it felt like over an hour. I rolled down the window and yelled to my dad to come on. I’m a child I should go to bed early, even though I never did go to bed early. I was always one to toss and turn and watch the clock. Go to sleep for a few hours and wake up in the morning like I slept for a whole day. Anyway, he comes to the car and he says to me that my uncle will be coming to pick me up because he knows that I am tired. He was going to hang out with his friend for a while. My favorite uncle came to pick me up, he came to pick me up and we sang the songs on the radio on the way to his house. In the back of my mind, I knew my dad wasn’t going to be coming for me that night. I talked to my uncle as if he was, I told him that my dad was silly, but he was definitely coming to pick me up. My uncle’s girlfriend fixed me some food, I can’t remember her face, I can only remember that I thought she was very pretty.  While I was eating my food and I was telling my uncle about the things my dad and I were going to do. When I finished I looked at my uncle and said ‘Daddy’s not coming back tonight is he?’ He looked back at me sad and nodded his head. I knew my dad had left me, I knew my uncle wouldn’t tell me directly what it was that took him away, but I knew. I’ve always known. My mom never had to tell me, my dad never had to confess it. I knew. I’ve never told anyone about this. Cause there was no reason to I felt,  but I liked telling it.”

“Well, I’m honored. Thank you for telling me. I guess I can understand how you felt that way after that. Especially after not opening up about it. People around you thinking that you don’t know but you know pretty well actually.”

“Ya, adults never think kids are very smart. They are, they know and understand a lot more than what we give them credit for. This is why I think philosophy is interesting, to think that we have all the knowledge from previous but we forget it and have to learn it all again.”

“That is an interesting concept. Plato is one of the most interesting philosophers out there.”

“Let me ask you this though doctor. If you had the knowledge of your previous reality and the choice to live. Would you choose to be born doctor?”

The timer went off telling the doctor and the patient that time was up. She got up with not a word and left. Normally the doctor would keep going a little after the session, make sure everything was wrapped up. She left him no chance of that, leaving without the answers.