ERNIE AND ERNESTINA: The Writer, His Wife, and their Afterlife

Book One, Part Two, Chapter 175: Poison

In the middle of the night, Joshua awakens me. He’s standing over me. “I didn’t want to wake you so I called Christy, but I hung up on her when she screamed at me.”

He goes back to his end of the room and sits in the chair under the skylight. I follow him, sitting on the floor, my back resting against the futon.

With his long fingers, he picks and pokes at his woolen shirt. It’s a nervous tic; he can’t stop himself. But he doesn’t talk. He doesn’t seem able to start himself.

What is inside him that won’t come out? What is hurting him?

Let it gush out of you like vomit, Joshua. Spew it out. Get out the poison.