Cobains' Eyes

“Wow” Joseph pulled the picture up, holding it in two hands. The energy of the image was immediate and he could smell the sweat of the concert and feel the pulse of the song.

“Lithium” he whispered and was certain that that was the song that had been forever frozen.

He turned his head and saw no one else on the street.

“Mine now” he said and walked the thirty metres home with the picture under one arm. In the lounge he pulled down an old picture of a samurai Alice had bought years before and hung Kurt. He admired the image and then swaggered to the kitchen, mumbling the lyrics to Lithium under his breath, and returned with the last third of a bottle of vodka.

Slumping, he swigged from the bottle, flicked on his iPad, and passed out.

*

He woke and waited for pain.

He stretched out his thoughts into his legs and arms and sought bruises. He sucked air in tentatively expecting his lungs to wince. Slowly he opened his eyes, prepared to cry out at the Saturday morning light, but instead of pain he blinked at the golden morning outside and heard the chirp of birds outside. He heard laughter from his neighbours and the happy bark of a dog. Joseph stretched and sat upright, his back fine despite the fact he had slept all night sat upright on the sofa. He stood and felt no pins and needles in his toes. He looked up and saw Kurt on the wall forever screaming out, eyes closed, and smiled.

“Guess you took the hangover” Joseph said and walked to the bathroom, pulling off his t-shirt before showering for twenty minutes and emerging from the steam believing that every trace of Alice had just sluiced away in burst bubbles.

Joseph walked opening windows and blinds. Sunlight flooded the rooms and he finally stood before the back window watching the rugby being played on the field in the centre of town and it was only when he heard a gasp that he realised he was standing naked.

He smiled at the girls standing at their kitchen window gaping and walked away from the window scratching his backside. Joseph returned to the shower and spent another half an hour under the water.

*

He felt fantastic.

He started running and was surprised how far he managed each day. He did press ups on the headland and sit-ups in his hallway and even after only seven days he felt firmness across his stomach and an ache in his thighs. He had his hair clipped short and stared at himself in the mirror through his glasses, resolving to try contact lenses.

Half an hour later he was sat in an opticians flirting with the optometrist as she ran up a prescription for lenses for him.

That night he bought a girl home who looked faintly like Alice and lost himself in scattered limbs and sighs. He made breakfast and bought it to her in bed and she asked if they would see each other again.

“I’m getting over someone at the moment” he said as he put the cup of tea on Alice’s bedside table.

“Really?” Faux-Alice asked, “So this was just a one nighter?”

Joseph nodded. “Is that ok? Sorry I don’t mean to have been…”

She sipped her tea. “First time I’ve ever had breakfast in bed after a one night stand.” She smiled at Joseph and five minutes later joined him in the shower.

He never thought to ask her name, though she said his often.

*

He had another one-night stand with a Japanese girl and was pleased to note she looked nothing like Alice. She gave him her number in the morning as he dressed in her bedroom and he took it, leaning forward to kiss her.