Sanity

Penny stood completely still and tried to stop time. What was she supposed to do? The stress of seeing Joan lifeless on the floor or the possibility of the creature coming back to life caused her to shut down. At the very least, she wanted to crawl deep inside herself and be oblivious to it all.

The body on the floor did not move. It did not breathe. It just stared at her as a lifeless zombie. Penny turned to go as if to leave the little house. Maybe she could just go and no one would ever know she had been here. That seemed like the best option.

But wait. Her mother knew she was coming over here. No, she would just tell her mother that she had gotten side tracked, locked the keys in the car, or left them in her apartment and locked herself out. That would not work. You needed a key to lock the door from the outside.

She looked back into the other room. Nothing moved. Penny turned toward the door. She could see her car outside through the window. It looked normal, a piece of the everyday. If only she could just make her feet move a few move steps toward it, she could be out the door. Before her hand even reached the door handle, she looked outside again. The neighbor man. He was still out there beside his car, yet his gaze seemed to be fixed on the house. Some how she doubted she could just walk nonchalantly out the door without attracting his insidious gaze.

Think, she kept telling herself, willing an action into motion. Her mouth was dry. Her tongue felt parched and unalive, much like Joan. There was a terrible taste to these notions of fear. Metallic and sewer-like. It occupied the part of her brain that was not in flight. It overwhelmed all the other senses and she longed for a glass of water like she had longed for the end of her divorce.

Mechanically she walked to the sink and opened the cabinet over it. There were an array of miss-matched cups. For once, not caring about the aesthetics, she chose one closest to her reach and turned on the tap to the sink. The cup filled with tap water. The filling, though only seconds, took took its own sweet time. The results were so desired that Penny did not even bother to turn the faucet off. She raised the cup to her cracked lips, felt the moment of swilling anticipation and the liquid poured forth in abundant ecstasy. There was no scrutinizing the city tap water. There was no filtration anxiety, just a sensation of being filled up.

Outside, a car pulled up behind Penny's. The neighbor moved his gaze from the door of the house to this new accoutrement to the story. He watched as a large woman got out. He had seen her before and thought mean things about the way she looked. He dropped his gaze back to his car.

Penny did not hear the car or even notice the presence at the door. It was just water, beautiful, refreshing, water. Sanity.