A Woman and Her Dead Husband
— After reading Russell Edson
Corey Cook
A woman couldn’t bring herself to bury her dead husband. She decided that the two of them would continue their cohabitation. During the day the woman propped her husband up with plush pillows in his Lazy-Boy. At night she dragged him into the bedroom and hoisted him up onto the mattress. The woman would take the man with her when she ran errands as well. She would carry his limp body out to the car and flop him in the passenger’s seat. He would ride to the grocery store with his eyes closed and mouth open - head beating against the glass.
The woman’s friend stopped by for tea and asked her, “Don’t you think you should bury your husband? He has become a burden to you in his death.”
“I cannot do that. Death yields new life. I must wait...” the woman replied as she smiled at her husband - her right arm around his slackening shoulders.
