Big Event by Rowan Estes

I went for it in August. I told all of my friends “I’m going to go for it.” They were all like “Right on, man,” and “you go, girl.” So I went for it big time. I stayed up for like three days straight. I didn’t eat anything. I didn’t drink any coffee or soda or even iced tea. I purged my body of all of its toxins. I hung upside down from a bar I extended lengthwise across my living room. Sometimes I hung from it like a sloth. Sometimes I did pull-ups on it. I meditated by folding my legs underneath myself and hovering exactly seven inches off the ground, which really freaked my cat the fuck out. My cat was running all over the house, screaming like a banshee. I was going to go for it real hardcore. I wasn’t fucking around. People were starting to talk about it. There was a real buzz building. Pamphlets were circulated. The time was coming up. I mean the time is now. I mean, when the moon gets full and the clouds come in, my house lights up like a beacon in the night. You can see it from miles off. All of the people gather outside on my lawn. Everyone in the entire world. They extend out into the blackness and you can’t see where they end. They are here for me. But when it comes to it, and everything is ready, and all of the people hold their breath, I am not there. I am too small. You can find me in the cupboard. I am waiting for the mice.

About the Author

Rowan Estes’s work has appeared in Hobart, Copper Nickel, and ILK, among others. He lives in Western Massachusetts and studies in the MFA program for Poets and Writers at UMass.