20120125

Crossed Wires

by Paul McQuade

He won't tell me he loves me on the phone. Something about the way the wires tangle, the way they vibrate too audibly. Every night I say the words into the receiver and after a while the dial tone screams. I listen to it so long that I think I can hear him speaking in the static. I am always just about to understand what he is saying when I fall asleep. When I dream about his girlfriend lying next to him I feel like I am suffocating.

6S

Paul McQuade is a Scottish-born writer living in Tokyo. His work is forthcoming on the National Gallery of Scotland Anthology and Fractured West. He has a tattoo of a teacup on his left arm and a penchant for Hendrick's gin.