My fourth chapter is already out from book one and book two. Probably my absolute favorite part of this chapter...is actually three parts XD.
One is my sort of recreation of one of my favorite poems "The Honey Bear" by Eileen Myles in the first scene. It's so similar to the poem that it leads my character to acknowledge that there is a poem about this, though she doesn't remember the name.
Steam rises from the weathered gray ceramic mug bathing my face in the essence of flor de jamaica, and pre-grated ginger rescued from the dark recesses of my fridge. Billie Holiday is warbling from the radio, forever set to that one ‘oldie but a goodie’ station Mrs. Moon got me hooked on. I stir in more and more honey. There’s a poem about this, I think.
My other favorite thing about the chapter is this line, which becomes relevant again later:
It’s been over a week since my release from the hospital but it’s the first time the weather has permitted me to go out on my wild goose chase, in search of beauty.
It’s too cold for this, and I’d rather do anything else but face the weather - run the risk of running into someone who will want to stop and talk - but I have to find him something.
There’s nothing beautiful in my apartment.
And lastly this screen saver - which kind of has a whole mini-arch plot thing of it's own-
“Alright. A promise is a promise.” I free the frozen phone from my pants pocket and warm the glass against my cheek until it becomes responsive. The lock screen still glitches twice, refusing to acknowledge my password, and I wait for it to reset, staring at the ugly picture of himself that Kattar set as my lock screen a few months ago, when I was stupid enough to fall asleep with my phone unlocked.
He has his hair pulled up into a messy cross between a bun and a ponytail, his teeth bared like a hissing house cat. I can see myself in the background, my head propped up on the arm of the sofa - the shadow of my hair giving me the illusion of a neckbeard.
Kattar has asked me a thousand times why I haven’t changed this screensaver yet. And I’ll hem-and-haw, say he got me fair and square, so I’ll suffer the prank until the turn of the year, but the truth is, the picture isn’t half as ugly as he thinks.
