He asks me to write the story of her life.
“What could be more natural?” he coaxes. “You’re a hell of a writer, and it’s a hell of a life. She doesn’t know about us. She can dictate and you can shape it into something stunning.”
I imagine the book. It will drip with words like taiga; fauna; stowaway.
“Will I write about your marriage?” I ask.
“Oh, it can just be about the adventures,” he says lightly, refusing to look me in the eye.
I remember kissing wantonly in a vineyard.
“Marriage is an adventure,” I reply.
His eyes are reproachful. We sit still for a moment, and I slowly pull a loose thread from my sweater. I imagine the entire thing unraveling.
Tara Roeder is the author of the chapbooks (all the things you’re not), published by dancing girl press, and Maritime, published by Bitterzoet Press. Her work has appeared in venues including 3:AM Magazine, Cheap Pop, Hobart, and Leopardskin and Limes. She teaches writing in Queens, New York, where she lives with her partner and some animal friends.
–Art by Marina Ćorić
