Author’s note: In the interest of honesty, I have to admit that this was not a single session, but rather several, over the course of about a day and a half. I’m not sure how many different voices are involved; at least four. I don’t actually hear discrete voices, anyway, but this still reflects the emotional experience fairly accurately. The only speech I am sure is ME is the penultimate one.

/////

“Prompt: A woman tells her fiance and her best friend that if the two of them ever decide to have sex, she is OK with it, as long as they let her watch.”

“Hard pass. There is no way that that turns into a story that we want to tell.”

“Why not?”

“There are only two paths forward: Acrimonious Triangle, or Joys of Polyamory. And we don’t do either of those, so pass.”

“Is there anything else in the hopper?”

“No, but there’s never anything in the hopper.”

“So we can maybe waste a little time looking for a third path?”

“Whatever.”

“The speaker’s name is Jennifer.”

“What? No. We aren’t anywhere close to wanting names, yet. Shut up.”

“We could use labels, though. How about Friend, Fellow, and Finacee?”

“I know where you sleep.”

“You’re just jealous I got there first.”

“Anyway… Friend and Fellow need to fall to fornication to move the story forward.”

“Really, you do not want to be the reason I take up recreational waterboarding.”

“And… We are still looking at the same two paths.”

“Not if we kill Fiancee.”

“What? That might work. Chase it.”

“Catastrophic illness or tragic accident?”

“Illness is out, unless you want a deathbed scene with overtones of voyeurism and polyamory.”

“Fiancee is still named Jennifer.”

“SHUT UP! How does the tragic accident leave us any better?”

“It doesn’t. Can we go now?”

“How about a crisis apparition?”

“Say what?”

“They’re all in different places, and moments after Finacee dies, the other two hear her say, very clearly…”

“‘I still want to watch.'”

“Last request from a dead friend.”

“And Friend and Fellow fall into bed and live happily ever after. It’s still not worth telling.”

“It needs a frame. Who tells the story to whom, and why?”

“After the happily ever after. One of them has died, and the other tells the story to their children.”

“NOW we have a story. Who dies, and who tells?”

“Friend dies, Fellow tells.”

“That simply?”

“Skeeviness control. If Fellow is the one who initiated the sex after Finacee died…”

“So Fellow should be passive. Which means he should also tell the story, for the same reason, so Friend dies.”

“Right. Now we just need a ‘Why now?'”

“Post-funeral family gathering. The kids have never heard the story. Still need a trigger, though.”

“They had some sort of private ritual that was an expression of gratitude in Finacee’s memory, and the kids ask him about it.”

“Like what?”

“Toast her name, when drinking? But not her name directly, that’s too obvious. Some code word.”

“‘White Ghost’.”

“Gods. That’s perfect.”

“I TOLD you her name was Jennifer.”

“He is NEVER going to let us forget this.”

“I still know where he sleeps. Are we done now?”

“I think so. Steno can handle the piddly stuff.”

“I am NOT ‘Steno’. I am a living, breathing human being, and all of you work for me.”

“Sure. Whatever lets you sleep at night.”

P.D. Haynie

May 29, 2023

If you haven’t read “White Ghost”, you can find it here.