AUDIO
hey,
he asked her one day,
do you want to travel with me?
she smiled, flattered.
sure, she responded,
i love traveling.
in fact,
i haven’t been on a plane
since i went to disney world with my family
when i was ten.
then he grinned and said
nah,
we don’t need an airplane.
i actually hate flying.
well then, she asked,
where are we going?
somewhere we can drive to?
that will still be fun.
he said, we are going,
wherever the hell
you want to go.
her eyes lit up at the possibilities.
he said open,
she opened her mouth.
he said close,
she closed her mouth.
she waited,
nothing.
she waited some more,
nothing.
and then,
something.
it was hong kong
it was venice
it was honolulu
it was paris
it was rio de janeiro
it was cleveland
it was johannesburg
it was amsterdam
it was the world in its entirety.
it was everything she had wanted to do but didn’t have time for.
it was everyone she wanted to be but just couldn’t.
it was everywhere she had wanted to go but could never get to.
nothing is free.
she knows that nothing in life is free.
but this was free,
and this,
this was traveling.
and then,
she began to cry.
big, burning droplets rolled down her porcelain skin.
she took her frail fingers and clutched the side of his arm,
digging her nails deep into the layers of his skin,
afraid that she would let go
and be lost in the cities forever.
why are you crying?
he asked
then he laughed.
he laughed so loud
that the glass inside of her ears shattered.
she couldn’t even speak.
the lights from tokyo,
the wind from london,
the salt water from miami,
it all happened so hard and so fast
that she couldn’t even tell him why she was upset.
so she just cried and cried
until she was finally back home,
where she dried her eyes
and released her scathing grip,
leaving only a faint stream of red blood.
