Saturday Night

Sahira had bought some Chinese takeout one night and had set her green crimoline wallet on her dresser. It was never seen again. The Big Mystery plagued her for weeks, as troops of friends came to search her apartment, shake their heads, puzzle out loud. Where could it go? By the time she had accepted it for lost, it was exam time, so she sent her last remaning id into the state and applied for a new license. Now, without identification, Sahira was secretly delighted that she had an excuse to avoid the nightlife, an excuse to study, for 3-4 business weeks. Sahira explained this brilliant development to Adelaide at the Elkland show. Adelaide mused over it for a few minutes, and then decided no. No, she liked drinking too much for that. She would have to watch her wallet closely while at Sahira's. The short-haired duo began their customary press against the other fans, pushing their way to the front, earning the scorn of all those behind them under 5'9- their exact shared height- and receiving elbows and curses in the way. Sahira began battling with a punkish looking girl with big earrings who refused to budge, and Adelaide took up the supporting front behind her, standing with her arms and shoulders equally spaced apart, curling her lip and pretending she was walking home in Queens again, at 3am after the last shift, with three hundred soft dollars in her pockets and her white restaurant shirt conspicuous.

Yeah, just like that.

Wednesday morning

Adelaide's father had a lifelong fondness for rocky road. Without fail, nightly, like breathing, he would pull out a tub of it and slur"Rocky Roaddd", tilting his head into his best Goonies impression. He never tired of his favorite jokes. Now in this new woman's house, where her father's pictures had suddenly cropped up, Adelaide leaned against the fridge while opening its freezer and stopped to stare at the tub of Rocky Road. Half the fat, that must be the woman's doing. Her father, at a lumbering 2.5 and 6ft tall, was opposed to health as a general principle. Adelaide leaned there, watching the dessert for some time, letting the cold air escape into the Florida around her . That night, after the three course dinner and dessert, her father would timidly approach her with a dish of it, a half grin apologetically on his face. And she would love him and she would eat it.

Whenever Adelaide went to bed with a full stomach, she had nightmares involving people. That night, she would dream of her old best friend, who was resurrected with stumps for arms. Every hour on the hour she woke up from the dream, shivering from sweat, and every hour she would go back to sleep and dream the next chapter. She speculated that it was her body resisting the fatness. Her body loved to get fat, her psyche resisted even in her sleep. That night, Adelaide's body would wage the usual war for the third night in a row.

Adelaide pressed her forehead against the freezer door and yawned.