Iain Reid - I'm Thinking of Ending Things

I’m thinking of childhood. Memories. I can’t stop myself. These moments of childhood I haven’t thought about in years or ever. I can’t focus. I can’t keep people straight. I’m thinking about everyone.

“We’re just talking,” Jake said.

“We’re communicating,” I replied. “We’re thinking.”

When I was resting and scratched the back of my head with my hand, I felt a bald spot the size of a quarter. I’ve pulled out more hair. Hair isn’t alive. All those visible cells have already died. It’s dead, lifeless, when we touch and cut and style it. We see it, touch it, clean it, care for it, but it’s dead. My hands still have red on them.

Now it’s my heart. I’m angry with it. The constant beating. We’re wired to be unaware of it, so why am I aware of it now? Why is the beating making me angry? Because I don’t have a choice. When you become aware of your heart, you want it to stop beating. You need a break from the constant rhythm, a rest. We all need a rest.

The most important things are perpetually overlooked. Until something like this. Then they are impossible to ignore. What does that say?

We’re mad at these limits and needs. Human limits and fragility. You can’t be only alone. Everything’s both ethereal and clunky. So much to depend on, and so much to fear. So many requirements.

What’s a day? A night? There’s grace in doing the right thing, in making a human decision. We always have the choice. Every day. We all do. For as long as we live, we always have the choice. Everyone we meet in our life has the same choice to consider, over and over. We can try to ignore it, but there’s only one question for us all.

We think the end of this hall leads back to one of the large halls with all those lockers. We’ve been everywhere. There’s nowhere else to go. It’s the same old school. The same one as always.

We can’t go back upstairs again. We can’t. We tried. We really tried. We did our best. How long can we suffer?

We sit here. Here. We’ve been here, sitting.

Of course we’re uncomfortable. We have to be. I knew it. I know it. I said it myself:

I’m going to say something that will upset you now: I know what you look like. I know your feet and hands and your skin. I know your head and your hair and your heart.

You shouldn’t bite your nails.

I know I shouldn’t. I know that. We’re sorry.

We remember now. The painting. It’s still in our pocket. The painting Jake’s mom gave us. The portrait of Jake that was meant to be a surprise. We’ll hang it on the wall with the other pictures. We take it out of our pocket, slowly unfold it. We don’t want to look, but have to. It took a long time to paint it, hours, days, years, minutes, seconds. The face is there looking at us. All of us are in there. Distorted. Blurry. Fragmented. Explicit and unmistakable. Paint on my hands.

The face is definitely mine. The man. It’s recognizable in the way all self-portraits are. It’s me. Jake.

Are you good? Are you?

There’s grace in doing the right thing, in making a choice. Isn’t there?

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