dismemberings:
      Itâs eight in the fucking morning and Gene wants to die when he       wakes up to drool on his pillow and knocking on the door of his       apartment, loud, incessant. His mouth tastes like shit. He paws       his glasses off the cluttered nightstand and shrugs on a t-shirt       as he lumbers to the door. The vain attempt at flattening out       his comb-over is hopeless and it sticks up anyway, equal parts       comical and pathetic.Â
      He half-expects to be yelled at in Spanglish by one of his bitch       neighbors for the smell of death and piss and weed that still       emanates from his end of the hallway. Instead heâs greeted by       Everett, grinning, mildly perturbing. As soon as heâs unlatched       the doorâs chain and opened it, the kid throws his arms around       Schraderâs gut, suffocating. As always he is pretty unsure how       to respond to this beyond his best paternal hair-ruffle and a flat       grunt: âdo you have any idea how fucking early it is?â
      With that he retreats back to the couch, picking a wedgie out       of his ass-crack.
      âLong time no see, huh? Whereâd you go man? I was expecting       to see your face printed on the side of a milk carton or whatever.       Missing or some shit.â
   The suitcase is abandoned in the doorway while Everett scurries in and    sits claustrophobically close to Gene, his knees pulled up beneath his    backside and his hands on his chest. He pulls out chest hair brutally in    greeting, as is religion to him.
   âWas I gone that long?â Everett muses, sinking back into the cushions.    He thinks about it, and comes up with a white timeline of nothing. Just    the same old, same old. He tracks his steps along main streets lined    with burger joints, remembers getting a new bike (but he canât remember    where heâs put it) and remembers finding a new friend.
   Jenna was twelve and had a hammock and her skin was matted with red    criss-crosses and her insides dripped through the gaps of the hammock    after day two of childhood play.Â
   âMy neckâs got a crook in it,â he announces, and lifts his foot to put the    bottom of it on Geneâs beard after heâs abandoned mud-caked sneakers.    âWhat have you been up to, fatty?â















