1 Jessamine Wood knelt on the cold tile floor of her apartment’s tiny bathroom Her feet stuck out the open doorway into the hall Oh no she said quietly Then she said it louder Her moans of agony and dread echoed off the bathroom walls and floated out to the rest of the apartment Her husband Bodhi called from the kitchen I can take the night off They’ll never miss me Jessamine tried to reply but she felt too sick She heard his footsteps approaching on the creaky wood floor Don’t come in here she said Please Also you can’t stay home today We can’t afford for you to miss work Bodhi sighed but he didn’t argue
Jessamine hadn’t been able to work in weeks Without Bodhi’s two jobs they’d be out in the street Thinking about money made her sick again She felt her husband’s hand on her back and after wiping her mouth with the back of her hand snarled at him I said don’t come in here Sorry Bodhi said He held down a glass of cold water I wanted to say good night I’d better get going if I’m going Jessamine took the glass with a quiet thank-you and sipped slowly What time will you be home tonight she said As the cold water rushed through her empty system she felt a series of tiny kicks in her belly I’m on till three Bodhi said Franklin can’t take his shift His grandmother is dying Again Jessamine said She put down the glass and put out her hands so her husband could help her to her feet Her head swam a bit as she stood It always did For the sixth time this year Bodhi said
He kissed his wife on the forehead Get some sleep She almost laughed She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gotten more than an hour of shut-eye at a stretch Instead of trying to sleep in their stuffy apartment with no air-conditioning Jessamine grabbed an empty paper bag from under the kitchen sink slipped on her flip-flops and followed her husband out into the night It was a ten-block walk to the discount movie theater She didn’t care what they were showing She’d enjoy the air-conditioning see as many movies as she could till the last one ended around two and then she’d head home She’d done this before nearly every time her husband had to cover the late-late shift Tonight the theater was showing an old animated movie she’d seen a hundred times Still it reminded her of being a kid She stayed and watched the six o’clock showing the nine o’clock showing and the midnight showing She cried the hardest the last time
even though she’d already seen it twice that night When the midnight showing was over Jessamine was hungry The Woods lived in a busy neighborhood Even at this hour several businesses doors stood open letting their air-conditioning waft over the late-night sidewalks Some of those open doors also released the scents of delicious-smelling food There was the doughnut shop at the corner of Eighth Street There was Mario’s All-Night Pizza on Sycamore Avenue There was the noodle shop at Fifteenth Street just a block from Jessamine’s apartment Some nights even inside with the windows closed all she could smell was fish sauce and green onions But tonight none of it smelled delicious It was all she could do to hold her breath as she passed these places She reached her apartment building still gasping with hunger but unable to think of a single thing she wanted to eat
