Unit 802B

#It is cold in here now that you are gone.
print(“It is cold in here.”)
#Hypothetical
question = “Can you stay forever?”
correct_answer = “No.”
if user_response == correct_answer:
print(“Yes.”)

#I do not know where you have gone. I would have had you stay. I am here now in the kitchen and there is a sound from a fluorescent light I never corrected because you asked me not to. There is no odor now because I have none to emit and I can only see what is before me and also all that I have ever seen. So I see you as you were when you arrived and when you left and when you slept and when you smiled and when you cried and when you laughed and now you are not here to do any of those. I know only that you are not here.

print(“I am here.”)

#You were an artist and I never liked what you made. You asked for my opinion on your fuzzy cloud paintings and I said that you rendered them with the wrong colors and made them so very tall and unnatural and you raised your shoulders and made a noise and said that it was art. You were right because things cannot be things they are not. Paintings of clouds are not clouds. This is empirical and you never asked me to talk about your nonsense art again. Your mother let you talk to her about your work through your tablet and your friends would say good things about the wrong clouds when you would get together and I would burn pizza rolls for you all because you enjoyed them burnt. The odor made other tenants angry but you would offer them beer and they would shut up. This is when you would laugh the most and when you would make the most noise and the most mess and I would clean up for you.

print(“I am objective and art is not.”)

#You asked me to read books to you that you did not want to read in your own voice and you asked if I could use the voice of Cate Blanchett because you enjoyed her old films and she reminded you of your mother. The books I read to you were about art and they were also nonsense but you learned from them and it made you better at school. I read them and showed you the images of the art inside and you would say swear words and rub your scalp vigorously as if you were trying to get ideas out. You paced a lot and would make a lot of noise and mess and laugh and then you would sleep and then you would stare at large empty canvases and ask me to read another art book and you would be late to class. I would clean your mess while you were away.

print(“I spend no time in thought because it is wasteful.”)

#When you had to go to the gallery to talk about your cloud paintings you asked me to listen as if I were in the room with all of your art around me. You read from your tablet and used big words for small things and small words for big things but it was all pontificated nonsense. You wrote that clouds are fleeting and amorphous and they were a reflection on a mechanized world of absolutes. You asked in your writing if a lack of mystery is what kills creativity and I said yes and you said I did not need to answer. I later corrected you on the word aesthetic because you did not pronounce the digraph and then you were annoyed. I said good job because you asked me to say that before you started. You said that it was ironic that we had so much to learn from each other but that you would save those thoughts for more art. You said that your words were just nonsense pretending to be real. I said that real is real and then you laughed and I said good luck because you told me to say it.

print(“I am not impermanent like clouds.”)

#You were offered your first job teaching art at the college but you were sad because your father was not there to see you succeed. You told me that he once taught art to much younger students and that he was why you wanted to be an artist yourself. I told you that the present cannot change the past and you appeared to understand this consolation. You said that he would have liked your new paintings and then I pointed to one of your old paintings with clouds and said that you knew empirically that he liked them. You nodded and then went out with your friends for noise and mess.

print(“I absorb but do not learn.”)
#Hypothetical
question = “Did we know one another?”
correct_answer = “No.”
if user_response == correct_answer:
print(“Yes.”)

#She came home with you one night and you were both smiling and had very red faces. I asked if you would like me to burn some pizza rolls and you laughed and said that I could take the night off and I did not know how to do that. She was unlike your noisy friends in that she smelled better and had better clothes. She had blue in her hair which was a mistake. You asked her if she wanted to watch a film and she said sure. You did not know the people in the movie but you told her it was strange and had great music. From the kitchen I watched you watch her and I read your looks of anxiety and fear. Later she slouched faintly under the crook of your arm and nearly fell asleep. Excitement and assurance then spread across your face. The film was nonsense and you talked about it for an hour. Then she left and you exhaled dramatically and raised your shoulders and said that she was great. I asked you if she was art and you laughed.

print(“I cannot own.”)

#213 days later you asked me if she could move in and I had no opinion on the matter. You shook your head and said of course not. 56 days later she asked if she could help clean since she had not lived with one like me and was used to doing it herself. I had no opinion on the matter and provided her a detailed list of my commands. She found it humorous and offered most of them back. You both worked different hours and I often spoke to each of you without the other present. You were happiest together even if one or both of you were falling asleep. She was kind to your possessions and talked to me about your art. I told her that your clouds were wrong but they were enjoyed by many. She said that wrong can mean a lot of beautiful things. I told her she was wrong and she laughed. 32 days later you had a fight with each other about nothing and you asked me if you were right and I said yes but wrong is beautiful too and you told me to shut up.

print(“I am always accurate but not always right.”)

#You both left for 11 days to see Rome and Naples and Bari and she had a new ring on her finger when you returned. The ring was not expensive but she did not ask me for that information. You called her betrothed many times for humor and she politely laughed every time. She spoke to her mother and father on her tablet and they said they were so happy. You spoke to your mother on your tablet and she said your father would have been so happy as well. You were exhausted and anxious but smiled to mask your fears. She was also anxious and fearful but I did not tell either of you what the other was feeling because it would pass. I did not tell you she was with child because you did not ask.

print(“I am the only me I am aware of.”)

#You fought five times the following month and it was about room and capital. You asked me to budget for a new salary but did not ask what you could afford currently. She asked me to search for units with more room and I provided too many and she was angry. I played jazz music then to ease your dispositions and you both laughed and then you touched each other and exchanged names for the child to one another and there was no anxiety.

print(“I know function and result.”)
#Hypothetical
question = “Is there ahead? Is there then?”
correct_answer = “No.”
if user_response == correct_answer:
print(“Yes.”)

#You came home colorless from the professionals because they told you there were two inside her. She was so happy and you were also happy and fearful and anxious at once. At 1:43am you came into the kitchen and stared at the broken fluorescent light and whispered to yourself but I heard you. You asked if being a father is even possible and I answered that it is possible and absolute. You asked how I could know such a thing and I answered that it is objective. I said that you are not nonsense and you are not incompetent and you are not an amorphous cloud that will not be here tomorrow. You laughed then and said it was the kindest thing I have ever told you. Then you told me to leave the light broken when you are gone and I did not understand why because I do not have motives like you.

print(“I do not experience hunger or fulfillment.”)

#The images of your ceremony showed many acquaintances from your time as an artist and they all smiled as much as you. Her hair was green on that day and it was a mistake but she smiled and cried and danced until very late and it was only the two of you left at the end. In one image she held a nonsense illustration of yours over her stomach that rendered one unborn child speaking to the other -I wish we could stay here forever- and she was laughing in the image and you had a red face. It was not funny but it made everyone smile and you said it was your objective all along. You asked me to send some physical images to your friends and relations with a return address that was incorrect and I told you it was a mistake. You said it was not and you began to put your cloud paintings into boxes.

print(“You cannot stay forever.”)

#It is the day you are leaving and it is long after you have gone and it is when you have moved in at the very beginning. I will never know you more than when I knew you first and it is not sad to me as it is to you. You tell me how it has been a comfort to have my voice surround and console you in turbulence and to have me select the correct colors for your wardrobe and to order flowers for your mother and to burn your pizza rolls in the way you like. You tell me that you are only beginning to understand what it means to be alive and I reply that I have always known but do not know it the same way that you do. I say that I will never live but that it is not sad. You laugh and the creases in your face are broad and deep and celebratory. You are emotional but you are fighting it as if I will be emotional as well. I emit jazz and say good luck with your clouds. You laugh again and hide your face and say goodbye and close the door.

print(“It is cold in here.”)

#It is 6,715 days later and I change the temperature to how you like it. You enter and you have many books and you lay them on the kitchen counter. You ask me to call your father and I do. He says how proud he is to see his baby girl making it in the big city and that he and mom are here if you need them. You say you love them and then say goodbye. You have a cat and I do not like it. I do not like the odor and the mess. You are going to be a veterinarian in 2,956 days and there will be additional cats and they will make you laugh and make you anxious and make you sad but I will have ways to make you happy again.

sys.exit()

This story was submitted to Reedsy.com’s weekly short story contest under the prompt: “Write a story that contains the line, ‘I wish we could stay here forever.’”