forthcoming in The Sonora Review
Today Sven tells us to lie on the Pegasus Mobilebed. This is the one bed I cannot stand lying on. I even like the Reverberator 2000 more. I have a hard time pretending to be asleep when things are vibrating, folding, flattening and flashing. It surprises me that this bed is a bestseller. Sven is very proud of it.
Strangely though, today I manage to fall asleep. I have still not been sleeping at night, although yesterday I did fall asleep while trying to mow the lawn in the dark. Dewey hollered at me through the bedroom window that I was going to kill myself that way. He didn’t bother getting out of bed to tell me so. But today I fall asleep. I have a bad dream. In the dream Dewey bounces a big fat baby boy on his knee. The baby has whiskers over his upper lip and a receding hairline. He has crows-feet and pointed ears. It is Sven’s head, screwed onto a baby’s body. I look at Dewey. He cries, silently, and when he meets my eyes I see how accusatory he is.
—sharma shields, excerpt from Lying Down
To be published december 2008 in the sonora review, issue #55
