Penny sets the plate down and steps back to offer fresh ground pepper. She freezes with the pepper mill suspended. The young woman is staring at the tangle of noodles in horror. Penny scans the dish with the artfully smeared pesto and negative space. There is nothing amiss but something is terribly wrong with the woman at table four. Penny flashes back through the endless questions about the menu; what’s inside the Agnolotti, what’s the sauce on the gnocchi, what kind of pasta is Pici? It can’t be an allergy, the woman hasn’t touched the plate, but she’s short of breath and turning red. Penny reaches a hand towards the woman, she’s not sure why, maybe she thinks miming the gesture of an Epi-pen will be useful. What happens next is a flurry of clawed fingers, flailing arms, flying dishes and wails about snakes and murder. Later Penny will learn that the snake tattoo encircling her wrist triggered the woman’s PTSD. It is an unremarkable image until you see her inner wrist and the detail of the snake swallowing its own tail.
8 min @ Locomotive, The Junction, TO where I saw the news headline “Escaped python strangles two boys at a sleepover”
0 Comments