A long time ago, Ms. 12×2 asked me to try writing a story. She outlined that I should not think of the story ahead of time, the story should all be written at once, and I can only begin writing when a song (of my choosing) begins and I must stop when the song ends. I finally did it. You can find the story below, along with a link to download the song (right-click/Ctrl+click, then Save As).

Sunset Rubdown, Us Ones In Between, 4 minutes, 26 seconds

He doesn’t look anywhere but directly in front of him. Wind whips past, over his sunglasses, as he pushes harder down on the pedals and a skyline rises from the clouds ahead. He is surrounded on all sides by a red cage, barring him from drifting into traffic, shoving him into the paths of the slower-moving overweight women with their children.

He can still taste it in his mouth, the two-day-old coffee he reheated. He’d sipped the last three mouthfuls all at once while looking in the mirror and thought to himself, “god, this feels like myself.”

He can’t understand the buildings that he’s descending into. It’s okay. The people next to him don’t understand it either. Their eyes connect, but it is only to avoid slamming into each other at high velocities, only to avoid broken bones and headaches. He passes on the inside lanes and the outsides, shoving his knuckles into the walls of taxi cab windows. He feels no pain against his fingers, the combination of anger and pain creates a warm pool of water that his hand dips within. Inside of the cabs, he pats the riders on the back, telling them it’s not their fault. Caressing their jaws. Telling them that no one here knows anyone. That that’s okay. That if they all fall down today, at least they’ll be laying on top of each other, hair intertwined, coffee-drenched breaths pungent, understanding of, if nothing else, each other’s yearning for somewhere else.