She’s lying on the floor. Maryam sits on the couch and looks down at Her. Maryam notices the hair She has, tossed across her face. Maryam sees how She has legs that have feet at one end and hips on the other. She is in a tight huddle, but Maryam can see pubic hair poking from between her thighs. Maryam has a child, and wonders if She does too. 

“Come away from there.” That will be Maryam’s husband. Maryam’s husband is having an identity crisis: he can’t remember his name. Sometimes it is John, and others Zhang. Today he is trying Nootaikok, which translates to ‘God of the icebergs.’ Yesterday Maryam called him Sebastian, and he hated it. He stands tall, chest out, at the edge of the living room. “I said come away from there Maryam.”

Now it is Maryam’s turn to talk. “I don’t know if She is okay.”

“she’s fine.”

Maryam knows that Nootaikok did not assess the state She was in to arrive at the conclusion that She was, indeed, fine. Maryam knows that he processed his wife was in distress and waited for her to name the source of her grief so that he could state the opposite. Nootaikok does not care about the fate She might meet.

She begins to stir on the floor.

“She can’t even sit up.”

“Is she lying down?”

“Yes, look.” Maryam motions to where She lay.

“Well, help her up.”

“You don’t care.”

“How can I?”

“What?” Maryam already knows what he’s going to say before he says it.

“How can I care about someone that isn’t there?”

Nootaikok denys seeing that She is lying on their living room floor. Maryam stands, facing her husband.

“You see Her, Nootaikok.”

“I’d like you to call me Jean-Claude Van Damme today, I think that’s my name. I thought about it this morning and asked for God to send me a sign.”

“I don’t want to hear about this, Sebastian.”

“The TV turned on by itself — what did you call me? The TV turned on by itself after I asked God to send me a sign and Bloodsport was on.”

“Fine, Jean-Claude Van Damme, look there. Just there. You see She is there?”

“I only see our rug.”

“She has black hair and olive skin.”

“Our blue rug.”

“She is naked.”

“Where?”

“You see Her!”

Jean-Claude takes a step towards his wife Maryam and pushes his shoulder blades closer together. 

“Do not raise your voice at me.”

Maryam considers this, before screaming:

“Look at Her!” 

“There is no one there!” 

Maryam runs her hand through her hair and looks back to where She lay. How can she make him see? 

“How can I make you see?”

“Stop it Maryam!”

Jean-Claude’s shoulder blades must’ve been scraping together. He took another step forward but if Maryam stepped back she’d be standing on Her ankle. Jean-Claude’s eyes do a thing. Maryam steps forward.

“You see her!”

“I do not.”

“Just now! You looked at Her ankle because I almost stepped on it!”

Jean-Claude slaps Maryam in the face.

“I told you to stop it!” 

Jean-Claude goes to the kitchen, stepping over where She lay.

Maryam goes back to the couch and looks at the way She looks lifeless, but not dead. She appears to Maryam a poor imitation of what She should be. She is beautiful, but unattractive. Her body is finely sculpted, but scarred. Her skin is tanned, but bloodied in areas. Her fingers, neck, under her eyes, and the inside of her thighs: all smeared with blood. Her eyes are open, and they are blue. Tears carve their way through the blood caked on Her face, and a greenish-brown sludge slides from Her pouty lips. Her breasts rise and fall with Her breath. Maryam kneels over the woman and puts her forehead to Her stomach. 

“For the final time, come away from there.”

Maryam sighs and kisses Her stomach before rising. She walks into the kitchen. Jean-Claude Van Damme is there. She walks to the stove. Jean-Clause Van Damme is looking at the face of a cereal box.

“Cap’n Crunch. That’s my name, I’m sure of it.”

“Sebastian.”

“I told--”

Maryam hits Sebastian on the back of his head with a skillet. A small part of his skull fractures. She hits him again, hearing over his moans a noise from the living room. Maryam hits Sebastian on the back of the head with a skillet for the third time and the fracture in his skull widens. On the fourth and final time she hits him, a piece of skull penetrates his brainstem.

Maryam returns to the living room. Her daughter Oya is playing with her friend Santiago on the rug. Oya offers Santiago a flower, and he takes it.