‘Stay with me, nose,’ muttered the remains of her voice, and with the resigned sniffle of a cold, the now highly dignified excrescence turned begrudgingly back in her direction. From now on it would live in the inextinguishable hope of taking her skeleton and skin too, all that was left.

But it never happened, now that anxiety and happiness had left her, along with her desire for the eyes. It would never happen, now that she was inhaling the whole person without difficulty. Now that it was possible, since it had swallowed so much of her. Most of life had passed. The music was audible again, and they danced better than before and without fatigue. Below the ice lay her abandoned method, completely covered by his, suffocated by it.

People said they were the happiest married couple they knew.

Anxiety

The bed creaked, and she timidly looked up at the ceiling. Then she set her coffee cup down very carefully, so the spoon wouldn’t clink. The bed creaked differently when he was awake. But sometimes it didn’t creak at all, and that was just about the worst. This had been going on for three years now, and she never had time to remember how it had been before. He was a copy-editor and he worked at night. When he came home in the morning, she could instantly see on his face if there had been typos in the newspaper, but sometimes he didn’t read it until he woke up. He got terribly angry at her when there were mistakes, and it really was a shame, she thought, since he did his work so diligently. She was careful to always think good thoughts about him. But once in a while – like now, for example – when he was awake and she was drinking coffee, she thought it would be nice if someone came by to chat. In the beginning Henny came by sometimes, because she always had. Henny was her sister, and she lived nearby. But even though they were very careful and spoke quietly, the bed creaked continually. It was the awake creaking. Henny said, ‘Sound really travels in here!’ So they started whispering. Then he yelled that they didn’t have to whisper; he couldn’t sleep anyway. And she was always glad when Henny left. It was better that way.

Actually she wanted a cat. Then she would have company at least, and cats were silent. One day, when he was in a good mood, she would ask him if she could get a cat.