Colt Copsey

Take a pin and tie about a hundred threads to it. Press it into the wall and pull the threads as far as they go.
Last night Colt had dropped a mug of coffee over his arm, now the red was going down and Sarah was on the phone with him.
He said, “So I guess Eric isn’t coming back”.
Sarah, being the shortest thread, said, “Hold on a minute”, and the line went quiet.

The coffee had turned out to be a really bad idea, only being able to stay five seconds in each room before having to change again.

Last night Eric had sent him a text from some seedy motel,
“NEED M SPACE RIGHT NOW. LOVE Y BUT IT JUST ISNT WORKING OUT”.
This was fifty years after telegrams got outdated.
After half an hour he had replied,
“WOW, BIG SURPRISE THERE.” Stop.
“JUST LEAVE ME THE FUUUUUCK ALONE ALREADY” Full stop.
With his body shaking he spilled his coffee.
Poor little Colt who just couldn’t cut off the hanging threads.
The problem with pins, if not falling off, the things pinned down will stay on the wall forever.

Now the cell-phone laid haunted on the table as a silent receiver.
Three four five and he left the room.

There was the sound of brushing against skin from the other side and then Sarah was back on the line.
“So, Mr. Powell is out of the picture. What happened?”.
Colt looked over at the phone and then picked up his keys, “Don’t know, wish I could tell you.”.
He headed for the door.
Sarah asked if she could come over and Colt said, “No, I’m heading out”.
Three four five and he was out of the apartment and he knew exactly what his sister was thinking
What perfect stranger would little baby brother Colt fuck now?
It didn’t really matter that he wasn’t going to.
Sarah said, “Ok.. But I’ll be over tomorrow”.
Colt, almost holding in his breath, said “Ok, love you. Gotta go”.
He kept walking up the hill behind his apartment building and when he was at the top he kept on walking. When he came to a small gathering of trees by the railroad tracks it was already dark.
He took a deep breath and the street lights by the tracks came on, stop.
And he screamed until his lungs couldn’t take it anymore, full stop.