Two Plus Two
- emotional recovery
- accepting imperfection
- humanity
- survival
Sometimes 2+2=5, if it helps a person survive the night.
Sometimes 2+2=5, if it helps a person survive the night.
Olga stood in line at the gas station with a pistol in her hand. A fuel pistol. Premium 95. In her other hand - a breast. The left one. Three-month-old Vanya was latched onto it, strapped in with some elaborate harness system that turned motherhood into an extreme sport. The tank showed 23 liters and 38 kopecks when Vanya bit down with his teeth....
Yesterday I said to Natasha from accounting "happy holidays to you too," even though she said "have a good weekend." That was Friday. It's now Sunday, three in the morning. In my head, I've already said "you too" - normal, neutral. Said "thanks, same to you." Said "oh right, totally forgot what day it was." Laughed at myself - easy, harmless. Said...
Old Leo, the jazz pianist, wasn't teaching his only student, Sam, music. He was teaching him silence. Sam was a genius. At twenty, he could play anything. His fingers flew across the keys with inhuman precision. He knew every harmony, every mode, every theory. He was a perfect instrument that flawlessly reproduced any score, even the most complex....
Gleb hung upside down. The world flipped three seconds ago. Before that, Gleb was a successful architect in a two-thousand-euro suit, rushing to a meeting to present a model of a forty-story needle. Now Gleb was a chunk of flesh trapped in the chewed metal of an Audi lying in a ditch. The seatbelt pressed into his collarbone with the enthusiasm of...