An Excerpt From “Bound By Blue”
He stood in front of the mirror in a place where no one could find him. His mother had finally died in some old people’s home his sister had stuck her in. His sister liked to stash people away. She’d had Edward taken to the hospital twice for what the police called, “Potentially harmful to self or others.” His sister lived in another city but kept one eye on Edward at all times. She called him every weekend. He had been diagnosed and the mask of relief had imprinted itself on the faces of everyone he knew. There was a name for what he was. They all nodded their heads and spoke over him in quiet tones. He wasn’t violent. Never had been. But Schizoaffective was filed away to rectify any action he took that challenged the normal day-to-day repression that commemorated the lives of everyone around him.
And now Edward stood there naked, with a spoon. There was no gun or pills or rope to hang himself with. Just a spoon that conjured up the daily regularity of soup, cereal, ice cream or Pepto-Bismol. It was a utensil that graced the tables of conventionality. It was sublime in its household, prosaic banality. No one looked twice at a spoon.
“Bound By Blue” appeared in Meg Tuite’s book, Bound By Blue, available from Sententia Books.Purchase yours today!
Beth Couture is an assistant editor with Sundress Publication and the secretary of the board of directors of SAFTA. She is also the fiction editor of Sundress’ newest imprint, Doubleback Books. Her own work can be found in Gargoyle, Drunken Boat, Yalobusha Review, the Thirty Under Thirtyanthology from Starcherone Books, Dirty, Dirty from Jaded Ibis Press, and other publications. Her first book, a novella titled Women Born with Fur, is due out in the fall from Jaded Ibis Press. She teaches at Bloomsburg University in Bloomsburg, PA.
