Friday night. She goes to the city with the rest of them. This is how it goes. She leaves early and he follows. They walk. Where are you going, she asks. Lets spend the night together, he tells her. She agrees. They continue walking. In silence. He stops in the first motel. Asks for a room. They take the elevator, in silence. Room 505.

She enters. He enters. They sit in the corner of the bed. He stares. She doesn’t like to be looked at. She turns around. The curtains are down. The walls are blue. The rug is dirty. No books on the shelves. Two plants. Both dead. They are the only ones alive in the room. Maybe some spiders. A mosquito. A hidden mouse. Sometimes she likes objects better than people. Objects don’t stare. Objects don’t ask. Objects don’t expect to be pleased. He approaches. She stands still. She doesn’t know where to put the hands. The legs. The mouth. I must look like a statue, she thinks. He turns the lights off. Her eyes are wide open, looking for something solid in the dark. Shadows cuddle in the corners. He puts his arms around her. She pulls away. It is too hot. No pressure, he says. Pressure, that strange word. She thinks about the pressure of the water when she showers. She thinks about the pressure of silence in a crowded place. She stands up. Feet on the floor. Steady. Walks to the window. Outside, life running like water. It is raining, she says. Come here, he says. She sits besides him.

I had a dream, she says. I was in a lake and I caught a fish with my bare hands. He grabs her fingers. I started to eat his flesh just like that, raw and alive. He licks her thumb. Then I went into the water, there was a red light on the other side and I swam towards it. He takes his pants off. The more I swan, the further the light seemed. He puts her hand in his crutch. The water was so cold that my veins turned blue. He pulls her closer. I had never seen a light so bright. He pulls her knickers down. So bright it made me blind. He lies on top of her. So bright it made me feel paralyzed. He spreads her legs. I couldn’t feel my body. He pushes. So I just let myself go. What else could I do. I just let the current wave me off.