MONO ISSUE 1 PDF FLIPBOOK - Flipbook - Page 75
feet and took off in the opposite direction, away from the Rec Centre, out of the park, face
searing, teeth buzzing like saw blades, blood mixed with mucous running into his mouth. The
couple with the stroller appeared again. They stopped.
The man shouted something, came running, bearing down like a defensive tackle. The redhaired woman’s curls writhed like a nest of snakes. Was the baby pointing at him?
He dashed into the street––tyres screeched; horns blared. When the bumper bludgeoned his
thigh it felt intentional, malevolent, retributive. Then he was airborne. Flickering images tumbled
around his head–– a kaleidoscope of cars, trees, and sky, an indecipherable smear. And if the
impact of the car felt punitive, hitting the ground was like the wrath of God. He shattered, like
ceramic stuffed in meat. Then blackness.
When the blackness lifted, a bleary grey landscape stretched out before him, a sort of wasteland. Beyond that lay the foothills of a mountain range. No. Shoes. Several. A gathering crowd. He
shifted his eyes, the only parts of him he could still move, and saw the space above him filling up
with faces: a boy wearing a bike helmet, a city worker in a yellow vest, the young couple with
their baby…the young woman and the boy.
A cop.
A priest.
A dog?
Hundreds of faces…accumulating like hail stones.
All staring.
At him.
