Fernandez is Dead So He Doesn’t Talk Back by Hannah Leamon

Though truly I think the reason is 

he is a spider 

and he knows by how I splashed water at him in the shower that I don’t like spiders. 

I didn’t kill Fernandez 

but I did name him. Honestly the reason why I named him at all 

is because I thought it might be funny 

to the boy I had texted: 

there’s a spider in my shower 

kill it 

I can’t I’m afraid 

splash it with water 

And I did but like a stubborn ball of hair he didn’t move and thus 

became a good friend. I hesitate to say good because 

he doesn’t speak back but he does 

listen when I talk about 

showers 

and the boy. 

I think that’s all he understands. I hesitate to assume more. 

I may have killed him 

with boredom, only because 

I was dead bored too. Turns out the boy was bad 

which I shoulda known because 

he wanted to kill Fernandez, remember 

(which I guess he did at the end) (but with boredom not 

sadly boyless showerwater) 

so, really, Fernandez was the smartest of us all 

because he died before he had a chance to be 

as dead disappointed as I was. 

I scoped the spider out of my spiral doorhandle and carried him outside. If the weather permitted, he might be buried underneath the shiny small rocks beside the front step where not more than familiar footsteps come. I kept talking to his corpse as I carried him because I’m just selfish, I guess, and his leg twitched in the muscle sleep of death.