Cleansed

Photo of a dingy motel roomShe says don’t look in the bedside cupboard, so I look. There’s a Bible, a spare pillow, and a small pile of toenail clippings. She says we’re only staying a week, so stop being such a wuss. So what if the bed’s lumpy, if the couple in the next room have been fucking for the past hour. I get it. Her dad’s big in oil. They own a Caribbean island. She flies to Milan every Tuesday for coffee. A week here, she says, and she’s cleansed. She looks at her watch, her suitcase, me. It’s all just stuff, she says.

Gary Duncan’s flash collection, You’re Not Supposed to Cry, is available from Vagabond Voices.

Photo Credit: Will Keightley

One Response to “Cleansed”

  1. Tally says:

    Harsh and evocative, very good.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *