Fiction Without Diction

The Wrong Girl

As young men are wont to do, Ham fell in love. She was the wrong girl but he didn't know that. The right girl was dead. She accidentally ingested hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) when she was three and vomited her insides out. He didn't know that either. All he knew was that he was in love and love was in him. The girl (the wrong one) had a pretty name. It was Lily. When he saw her he thought of gardens and sweet smells and butterflies.

He had butterflies in his stomach too.

Ham first saw her in the canteen on one of the long benches opposite the chicken rice store. She had just finished physical education class and her hair was wet and tangled like dawn grass. She was a year younger than him. She was in the school band so he joined the school band too, even though he had no rhythm. They became friends and she liked him.

One day he asked her: "Will you go to the movies with me?"

She said: "Only if you pay."

"Ok."

They kissed that night and it felt like love.

But she grew bored because he was tone deaf and couldn't play and music was her life. She couldn't imagine someone being alive without melody in one's soul. It was like fire without heat or angels without wings or beer without foam. It wasn't right. She couldn't stand it. And she loved too much the feeling of a stranger's hand on her waist, furtive trysts with handsome boys with baritone voices and the delicious lies that flow from her tongue the morning after.

"I know you love someone else," he said to her one day.

"Don't be silly," she said.

"Is there something wrong with me?" he asked.

She left him and she never told him why and all considered it was better for everyone.