Sushi's Night Out

Sushi Sashimi cried her eyes out when her boyfriend left her for an older woman. The older woman happened to be her own mother, that's what made things worse. Sushi screamed at the mirror, ripped her pillow, fed the goldfish to her cat. She switched on the lights every morning, switched them off every night, felt her way round the apartment, pretended she was blind.  She was convinced he'd left her because of her name and she just didn't want to see herself any more.

Sushi met her now ex-boyfriend in a bar and when he asked, she told him her name. No kidding, he said, and laughed. Sushi wanted him to fall in love with her so badly, she made up a story about how she lived with her mother and how she'd stolen her boyfriend away from her, leaving her with a goldfish and a cat. Oh, and a pillow and some lights, she added. And I can't really see you, because I'm blind.

I'd like to see you again, he whispered, looking into her dark eyes. When he thought about that night much later, many months later, he wondered how he could possibly have been so blind.

© Nora Nadjarian 2009