Four
I had a falling out with a friend over a film production we were trying to get up six years ago. The issue was meant to be settled shortly after, but whenever we have any new disagreement, it becomes the fuel for him to attack me. He has no self-control in these times. He verbally eviscerates me, then apologizes a day later, citing he’s hot headed. He thinks this is okay. It’s not that he’s intentionally malicious. But this is his methodology, the way he’s programmed to respond. He doesn’t have the self-awareness to change. And his logic has always been that friends argue, they forgive one another, and they…
Three
It’s not my friend’s voice I hear. It’s male – nasal, but sharp, like an electrical current that has been shaped into language, but also reverberating in a filter to produce a tight echo. And low. It might be coming from my left shoulder, but directed into my ear, worming into my head, startling me not just because they’re words in the middle of the night, but because they grate. I can’t process this the way I would other words. They have a serrated quality that saws through my mind. There are so many things the voice sounds like, so many things it can be, but none of these descriptions…