FOOT HEALTH

Donny took a can from the fridge and gave it to Alexander.  Alexander opened it and took a drink, then he took another drink and held the can in his hand, looking at it.  Donny closed the fridge door and took his own can from where he had put it on the counter.  He shook it and listened for a noise.  He looked at Alexander and smiled.  Alexander took several more drinks from his can.  He took a a few short ones and then a very long one.  He shook his can to show that it was empty.  Donny laughed through his nose and patted him on the shoulder.  He took another one from the fridge and gave it to him.
 "Here," said Donny.
 "Thank you."  Alexander held it in his hand without opening it.  He looked around the room.  He saw Julia.  Julia held up her can and smiled at him.  He opened his can and smelled it.
 He said, "Ah, there we go."
 He looked and saw Kay sitting on the couch with Stavros.  Stavros had a laptop resting on his lap.  He was typing something.  Kay was leaning over to see what he was typing.
 "Are you going out?" said Julia.
 Alexander looked at her, then at Donny.  Donny was putting a cigarette into his mouth and nodding at Julia.
 Donny said, "Going to smoke."
 He looked at Alexander.
 "Want to come for some fresh air?" said Donny.
 Alexander followed them over to the door.  He stood to one side while Julia and Donny went out and down the steps, barefoot.  He put his shoes on.  He looked back at Kay sitting on the couch against the wall, under the fluorescent lights, with Stavros.  The coffee table was full of empty  cans.  Kay looked up.  Alexander made a gesture with two fingers against his lips, then pointed out the open door beside him and nodded.  Kay nodded.  He looked back down at the screen of the laptop.  Stavros was looking at something on the screen and laughing.
 Alexander stood on the sidewalk at the bottom of the steps.  He looked at the empty street and the intersection with the lights hanging over it.  It was hot out.  He took a drink from his can.  A person on a bike rode past.  Julia stood, smoking, one arm across her torso and wedged under the elbow of her other arm.  She took a long breath from the cigarette and blew it out.  Donny was sitting on the top step leaning back against the closed the door.  He was looking at something on his cell phone.
 Julia said, "You alright?"
 Alexander said "M-hm"
 He took another drink from  his can.  Julia coughed.   
 Donny looked up.  He looked at Julia and then at Alexander.  He looked tired.  When he looked at Alexander he changed the expression on his face to look cheerful.  
 He said, "Alexander.  What's up."
 Alexander shrugged.  "Nothing.  What do you mean?"
 Some time passed during which Alexander, Julia and Donny sat or stood around the front of the house, on the sidewalk or on the steps, or walked out briefly onto the asphalt of the empty street to look up or down it to see if anyone or anything was coming.  They were talking about things they had seen that day.  Julia smoked four cigarettes.  Donny smoked one and finished his can and threw the empty can on the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the chainlink fence separating the sideyard from the street.  Julia frowned at him. Alexander laughed.  Alexander looked at his wrist.  There was nothing on it.  He put his hand in his pocket and took out his watch, looking at it.  He put it back onto his wrist and buckled it up.  
 Donny said, "Alexander, where's your drink?"
 Alexander said, "I don't know."   
 He looked around.  "Where did it go?"
 "Let's get you another," said Donny.
 Donny went up the steps and Alexander followed him.  Julia followed Alexander.  They went through the door and into the living room.  Donny went straight to the fridge and opened it.  He took out a can  and opened it, holding it toward Alexander.  Alexander was standing at the door looking at Kay and Stavros on the couch.  They were sitting very close to each other.  They were leaning in to look at something on the screen.  The light from the screen was glowing on their faces.  They were singing a song.  Alexander walked over and took the can from Donny.  He held it in his hand without drinking it.  Kay looked up at him and smiled.
 "Do you feel like going home soon?" said Alexander.
 "Mm.  I don't know," said Kay.
 "OK, well, what do you want?"
 "Let's stay for a while."
 Alexander put the can down on the table.  Julia and Donny looked at him.  He walked over to the door and opened it.  He smiled at Julia and Donny.
 "OK I think I'm going to go home now," Alexander said.
 "Are you OK?" said Donny.
 Alexander went down the steps and around the fence enclosing the sideyard.  Donny stood at the door and watched him.
 "Alexander take it easy OK?" said Donny.
 He looked back and smiled. He waved.  Donny waved back.  Alexander walked up the street, then turned again to look back at the house.  Donny was still standing in the door watching him.  He kept walking.  As soon as he was out of sight he began running.  He ran up the street.  He was breathing heavily and sweating.  He passed some houses with lights on in the windows, then several that were dark.  Some of the houses looked brand new.  Then he passed some houses that were very old looking and covered with fake brick material and had yards that were full of garbage and old bicycles.  He came to a railroad crossing.  He ran over and stopped at the edge of the tracks, standing on the gravel there.  The tracks disappeared into darkness.  He had his hands on his hips and his breast was heaving.  He vomited into the bushes behind the cinderblock building.  He stood up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.  He was breathing hard and his face was shiny with sweat.  He vomited again, getting some on the toe of his shoe and on his shorts.
 He walked the rest of the way home, very slowly.  His feet and legs were aching.  It took a long time for his breathing to slow to a normal speed.  He walked up the hill towards the apartment building.  In the entranceway to the apartment he took off his shoes and socks and closed the door behind him.  He greeted the cat.  He walked barefoot into the bedroom and sat down.  He wiped his face with the front of his T shirt.  He took off the T shirt and threw it onto the floor.  He went into the bathroom and took a plastic cup off the counter and filled it with water from the tap.  He drank a little of it.  He looked at himself in the medicine cabinet mirror.  He looked at his bare shoulders and bare breast, his bare arms, bare neck and bare face.  He turned slightly and looked at his bare back and the back of his bare neck.  He opened the medicine cabinet and took out Kay's hair cutting scissors.  He opened the hair cutting scissors so they formed a cross shape.  He held the cross shape in his right hand, gripping it with his fingers going between the open blades and curling around, one blade sticking out of each side of his fist.

It was cold.  Alexander was wearing long johns, a toque, a sweater, one sock and a sweatshirt with a hood and the hood was up with the drawstring pulled tight.  He was sitting on the edge of a mattress on the floor of a basement room.  He was holding his bare foot in his hands, knee out.  He was looking at the skin on the bottom and sides of his foot and between his toes.  The skin was hard and and dry.  Parts of it were cracked and the cracks were filled with something black.  He wrinkled his nose, concentrating.  He bent down and looked as closely at  his foot as he could.  He heard something on the TV and looked up, nose still wrinkled.  He looked at the TV.  He reached over and took a drink of something from a small green glass sitting on the linoleum beside the mattress.  He looked back at his foot.  He took a box cutter knife and started to very carefully cut the skin on the heel of his foot.  He moved the knife slowly, cutting exactly between the dead skin and the new skin underneath.  A piece of dead skin came off.  He put it on the floor beside the mattress.  He took another drink from the green glass.  He cut another piece of dead skin from the heel of his foot and put it on the floor.  He cut three more and then had another a drink.  Then he had another drink and cut two more.  Then he had another drink.  He was watching TV.
 He looked down and noticed that one of the cuts had gone slightly too deep.  It was bleeding a little bit.  He got up and stood on one foot.  Holding his bare foot a few centimetres above the floor he hopped on one foot toward the bathroom door.  While hopping through the door he almost fell over but was able to catch himself by leaning against the door frame.  He unrolled some toilet paper and wrapped it around his foot, covering the part that was bleeding.  He turned and limped back through the room.  He saw little round drops of blood on the linoleum.  He took a roll of masking tape out of one of the drawers under the counter at the end of the room where the sink and fridge were.  He wrapped masking tape around and around the toilet paper on his foot.  He walked back to the part of the room where the mattress was.  He was limping.  He sat down on the edge of the mattress and looked at the TV. 7/25/2011