15
Tony
Something was wrong. There was acid in his mouth. His chest was pounding. No, the pounding was on top of his chest, reverberating in his bones. Someone said, ‘You’re not pushing down hard enough.’
‘Stop it,’ he tried to say. They were always pushing him down.
But his mouth went slack.
His body was deadweight.
Thick ropes tightened around it.
He was moving but he was still.
Was he going somewhere?
No, no, he couldn’t go. He had to tell someone before it was too late. ‘I forgot to close the refrigerator door,’ he wanted to say. ‘The food is going to spoil!’ He hated wasting food. His father hated it more. In the village, there were no scraps. Even rotten food found a stomach.
A man’s voice said, ‘Aspirin.’
I don’t take medication, he thought, as his mind drifted off.
