This is How We Love

Xavier saw the streetlight blink in and out, over a shoulder, over the top of the heads, shafts of light, sharp and then splintering. He could see the side of a cheek, fists, the cuff of a jacket. He knew they were trying to murder him. He was waiting for it. They were landing blow after blow and his face was snapping this way and that, fists, two knees on his shoulders, someone pinning his legs and feet. Any pain from the knife was delayed. It came long after the knife.

The knife came twice. He expected it many times more. But the whole thing was interrupted.He didn't pass out when the boot stamped on his head, though his vision closed to a pinpoint. He could direct the pinpoint, like looking through the keyhole in a door, but it also had a mind of its own. It floated a few inches away from what he was trying to see.

He didn't see the knife. The knife came when he was being kicked in the head. He saw the boot coming and confused the sensation of the knife with the kick to his skull. There was a synaptic misfire and he felt the knife slide through his skull. But it had punctured his jeans and skin and maybe organs and wasn't anywhere near his head. It went deep. He could hardly believe it happened twice but at the same time he believed it.

Xavier heard the sirens. A roar of excitement went up each time the knife sank into him. The roar went up twice and was all the world like waves crashing on a beach, is what it sounded like.

From This is How We Love by Lisa Moore 2021. Published by House of Anansi Press.