Half Dead

Jessica and her husband lived in a small dingy flat in north west London. The sink was broken so that morning, Jessica had to stay at home in order to let someone in to fix the thing. The room was in chaos as the two had moved in days before. He'd gone in the early hours to work, a radio presenter, for a radio station that had little attraction these days.

Jessica woke to a man at the door with his tool belt and exposed crack. Watching him stick his torso in beneath the sink, she offered him tea which she more or less knew he'd decline with the smell of alcohol fumes just lingering the air. So she decided to let him get on with it and made herself comfortable in the livingroom, which was in the same room as the kitchen.

Sitting, she drew herself a magazine from the coffee table and started to read. It was last months copy. She circled her finger through a tuft of her hair as she read about some woman who fell in love with her dentist.

She sat for a few hours, until the worker announced it was all done.

She thanked him as he swiftly left the apartment.

When the door closed she went to check out the new working sink. But before that the kitchen was in a disorder, so she decided before her husband came home, she would try to get it back to normal. She grabbed the fridges weight trying to put it back to where it was.

She struggled with the weight between her arms, jerking it back and forth.

Then all of a sudden she was struck by the immense weight and as she clung to the cold box, it fell and crushed her.

*

Jessica woke from a sleep that felt like several days had passed. She was exhausted. And disorientated, she had no sense of where she was. Then it suddenly occured to her that the fridge had crushed her.

However she was not underneath a fridge or even in pain. In fact she felt light and weightless.

She looked around, it was dark outside and the curtains were not drawn. No sign of her husband Chris yet.

So did that really happen? She asked herself. It felt so real. But she couldn't figure it out.

The door opened. In walked Chris.

He threw his keys on the table and took off his coat.

And slumped down in the chair. She joined him at the table. Looking at his tired expression, still as handsome as the day they met. Though a few years had graced upon his skin and across his thinning hair.

How was your day darling? She offered him though he did not raise his head to her, instead he stared at the lamp. Darling? She asked again pointed. She touched his arm, and he still did not respond.

She grew irritation but also concern.

Whats up? And still nothing.

Whats wrong baby? She looked in his direction, in the glow from the lamp.

The silence was incredibly strange. Especially for him, he normally wouldn't shut up about work.

She realised the touch between them felt cold and seperate.

Chris got up and walked into the bathroom, and she followed.

He got undressed and ran a bath. She heard a sound, a clinking from the front door. She immediately turned on her heel and shouted out for Chris as someone was trying to get in to the front.

A female voice approached the threshold knocking.

She froze in the hallway. Chris then got out the tub and with a towel wrapped around his lower half, opened the door.

There came laughter and finally she heard Chris speak.

She walked cautiously to the door.

It was her.

Jessica.

Before her stood another Jessica.

In an embrace with Chris.

*

As the other Jessica sat in her spot, she studied her from across the room.

She looked exactly like herself. Down to the clothes she was wearing. But. Chris.

She ran into the bathroom and with all her body, yelled and screamed what is going on?

Who is that? Why won't you talk to me?

Chris got out the bath, still not looking in her direction, dried himself. She put her arms across the door. But he just walked through her. As if she were transparent.

Then it clicked.

The fridge.

Did that happen?

Am i dead?

She was a ghost.

Not able to be seen or heard from her husband.

Yes. She was certain, what happened with the fridge before had happened.

Although it made no sense, she was invisible.

She checked the fridge for any signs of what had happened. It was more or less the same as when she had put it. It didnt suggest it had collapsed on her body, it was upright but not fixed into the proper place.

The two sat cosy together on the couch watching the TV.

Her husband and this thing she had been replaced with.

Tears began to form in the lids of her eyes.

She just stood staring at the two. Laughing and talking as they would.

It became unbearable.

So she ran outside.

She ran and ran and ran.

Until she was out of breath.

She didn't know where she was going.

But it was clear. She was not welcome there. That was her home no longer.