Sierra Otero “Three Poems” (poems

Ridgeline Review

They were in the kitchen; she was making lunch. They were both standing by the cooking stove. He was looking at her hands as she stirred something inside a pot. Then she began to talk, but he couldn’t hear what she was saying. He leaned closer and said, “What?” She gently said something. But no sounds came out of her mouth. She was looking down at the pot. This made him feel discomfort inside his heart. He knew something was wrong.

“What, honey?” he said as he leaned even closer to her.

Then in an instant she turned into an older version of herself. She had white hair and was partially a skeleton; the cartilage on her nose was worn off and there was a big black hole and she had rotting flesh dripping down around her mouth. He could see her molars peeking out at him.

“Where are you!” she yelled.

He jumped out of bed. It was dark now and he looked at his watch. It was about eight-thirty. “Kim!” he called out, hoping she would answer. He winced. “K-I-M!” he yelled even louder.

But no sound. He ran downstairs and then he yelled again and again. A feeling of uncertainty clouded over him. He sat down on the couch again. He started to sob a little. A weird, unsettling feeling crept in. This is how he felt as a kid when his mom would go to jail for a few days or would shack up at some guy’s house for a week and Lee was forced to stay with his grandparents.

He put on his shoes and went driving around town, but he didn’t know where to start. So he came back home, hoping that she would eventually return. He called the police while he waited. They told him that she was an adult and that he would have to wait twenty-four hours before he could make a report. He wasn’t eating or drinking, which made him more dizzy. He sat down on the couch again and stared at the TV screen. He tried to watch the news, but he came to his senses and realized he hadn’t checked the backyard.

“What if she fell?” he thought.

He walked around to the backyard but found nothing. He returned inside the house. He looked at the clock on the wall. It said ten-fifteen. He turned the TV off. Then he looked at the house. It was so happy. Like there was nothing wrong. He could almost hear the people in the pictures laughing and have a wonderful time in some other time, somewhere. But in his world he 38

Spring 2022

was thrown off. He sat there thinking about how he could have stayed home instead of going hunting. He was in between jobs. He was waiting to be hired for the local forestry. He’d worked as a male nurse recently, but lost interest and wanted to do something different. His wife wasn’t working; her last job was working for a local restaurant in town. That was about a year ago, but they had saved up some money to hold them in the meantime. They didn’t have kids but that didn’t mean they didn’t like kids. They hoped to have some of their own someday.

Lee thought he could hear a buzzing noise. He didn’t really pay attention because he thought it was probably a vehicle with a loud engine coming down the road. He paused and listened.

The noise grew louder. It sounded like a swarm of bees. Now it was inside the house.

“What the hell!” he thought.

Within seconds there was a bright flash of light coming from outside the house. He could see the widows light up. It looked like somebody shined car lights directly onto the windows. But there was something different. He could also see other colors, too. He thought he saw reds and greens, as well as orange. The house began to shake. He stood up but couldn’t move. He was paralyzed. He tried to move but it was with no success. He wasn’t in charge of his body anymore. Then the loud buzzing noise grew louder. He closed his eyes. Within seconds, Lee disappeared.

Kim’s dad had been knocking for a while. So he walked in. He thought it was the only applaudable thing to do. He was worried for his daughter and his son-in-law’s wellbeing. He walked around inside the house but found no one. He called Lee’s phone. He heard it ringing on the floor in the living room. He noticed that the TV was on too. He walked over to the TV and turned it off. He didn’t know where to go or what to do now. He walked into the kitchen and drank a big cup of water. All this worrying made him thirsty. As he was drinking his water he looked around and felt that something wrong. That something had happened to them. He put the cup of water down and then he called the police.

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