Cold Humor

by Sarah Schultz-Nielsen

I rubbed my husband's feet in bed one night, and joked that they were like the feet of a corpse. He was wont to waking me very early, curling into to my back first with those cold feet that he would put on the back of my warm legs. I sputtered like an old wife, but I was only 27. Two days after my 30th birthday I saw him in the basement of a funeral home, covered in a scratchy gray blanket, ligature marks on his neck. He was a corpse. What a terrible joke.

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Sarah Schultz-Nielsen is a librarian, but is considering a career change that involves less people and more serenity. She lives in Maine with her husband and 2 dogs. She's had an essay published in Maine Voices: A Celebration of the People of Maine and the Places They Love.