In the bar, my lover is silent. He acts bored and says he is tired. I see him glance around the bar as if in search of better company.
I tell him this story I read in a newspaper. A man somewhere in Asia went to a hospital complaining of complications from surgery. The doctors found nothing wrong, but the man refused to leave his bed.
After a year, a new chief of staff took over the hospital. He said the man had to be removed. It took six policemen to carry him out. On a stretcher. He was still wearing his pyjamas, I tell my lover.
My lover blinks. He casts a covert glance at me as if possibly he may have a question or two in his mind.
I do not wait for him to speak. I begin another story.
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First published in Bonsai, Best small stories from Aotearoa New Zealand, published by Canterbury University Press, 2018.
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