I feel her skin against mine as I wake in the dark. My leg does not hurt. I feel as if I am on fire. So does she. We do not speak. She is all over me. She is in my mouth and on my chest. She is behind me and in front of my and everywhere and she is happy and then she is not. I don’t know how long it all lasts. It feels like hours but half the time I’m not there.

Then she lies next to me in the dark.

“Doc?”

“Jack.”

“Volodya—”

“Yes Jack.”

“But I mean—Volodya. I mean there is not Volodya anymore. Not ever.”

“Yes Jack.”

“I don’t understand how that works.”

“No.”

“Doc do— Never mind.”

“No Jack say it.”

“Doc do we have a future?”

“We have a present Price that is all anyone has.”

“Yeah but they also have a future do we have one of those too?”

“Price of course we have a future.”

“We do?”

“Do you want to know how I understand the world Jack?”

“Yes. I guess.”

“Every single one of us changes and vanishes second by second and when you wake up tomorrow you’ll be someone new and so will I so in a very real sense you and I were born together and we will be together for the rest of our lives. You are the only person I’ve ever slept with and in this moment between night and morning you are the only person I have ever known or will ever meet.”

“Jesus Doc.”

“What?”

“That is some nihilistic fucking shit right there.”

“It’s the truth Price and the truth is all the beauty there is.”

“Jesus.”

“Price?”

“Yeah.”

“Think about it.”

“No one exists and no one knows anyone? It’s like gazing into the fucking abyss is what.”

“Do you know what else it means? It means that death is meaningless. Death only happens to other people.”

“I dunno Doc I feel a close kinship with me.”

“So do I. Don’t worry. See you and I we’re a rhythm and a way of doing things and we are a dance. Ripples is what. And for as long as we are who we are we will dance around each other. The moment we’re not is the moment we part but that person—that person who does not feel what I feel around you—that person I have no feelings for she can fuck off and so can he. You and me Price we are the Universe.”

“Aw Doc!”

“Shut up.”

“You made a science pome about me!”

“Not what happened.”

“A romantic free verse pome with science.”

“I swear to you Price you better do some more sex stuff to me now or I will kill you.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Hhhhah ahh uh nnnm. Yes.”

“You made a pome.”