The drain gurgled. The husband kept telling her the drain did not gurgle. The drain was fine, he said. Must be her ears. She lifted up the wire strainer and they stared into the pipe together. It’s not gurgling! the husband said. All day she would hear it. He was sure it was fine, though. Pretty soon the husband told her there wasn’t running water, the sink didn’t exist, there wasn’t even a house. They lived in a palace! And it was filled with sunlight and love and clean corners. Keep telling me, she said. I don’t see it. That’s because her eyesight was failing, he explained. 

At the end of this story is a woman with no eyes, no mouth, no nose, no fingers or toes. And she lives on the moon. The end.

***

Ashley Hutson’s writing has appeared in Granta, Electric Literature, Wigleaf, Fanzine, and other places. Her debut novel is forthcoming from W.W. Norton. She lives in Sharpsburg, Maryland.