Lily and the Octopus

by Steven Rowley

The octopus is hungry. And it is going to have her.

Wtfff

“Today me will live in the moment, unless it’s unpleasant, in which case me will eat a cookie.”

Lmaoooo

We like it because when you order a martini it comes in a chilled martini glass, and then, when you’re halfway through the drink, they bring you a fresh chilled martini glass for the rest of it. They even transfer the drink for you and bring you fresh olives. Astonishing, right? Service.

Tell me youre autistic without telling me youre autistic

Someone once said give a dog food and shelter and treats and they think you are a god, but give a cat the same and they think they are the god.

We shared the rest of that ice-cream cone, for I am a god.

the only protest she makes is to remind me that she likes sausage. As if I could ever forget. “I know. You’re a sausage dog.”

I would pull the walls of this house down on top of him if he weren’t attached to the fragile skull of my deepest love.

“And how much does spinal surgery cost for a dog that is mostly spine?”

To focus, I think of how dogs are witnesses. How they are present for our most private moments, how they are there when we think of ourselves as alone. They witness our quarrels, our tears, our struggles, our fears, and all of our secret behaviors that we have to hide from our fellow humans. They witness without judgment.

But inside I’m wondering why on the day of my sister’s union more people aren’t thinking about me.

??

I spend half my life restoring that dog’s ears to their factory setting.

“Well, for starters, she has an octopus on her head.” The vet lets go of her jaw, looks at Lily’s head, and blanches.

This book is such a fever dream

“What did she say?” Jenny does this thing where she defaults to the feminine pronoun to make some sort of point about a male-dominated society, something she probably picked up in a women’s studies class in the late nineties and that now feels woeful and stilted.

Ted is lowkey giving me the ick

it’s midafternoon before it occurs to me that it’s not Black Friday. It’s not even Friday at all—it’s Monday—but I’m already at The Grove wandering the sidewalks of the outdoor shopping mall aimlessly in search of a good sale.

Im sorry but hes an idiot

It became easier to avoid people than to have to explain that I was struggling.

Apparently the Japanese add these to bento-type lunch boxes for children. This makes me think less of the Japanese.

Something abt this irks me. Hes made similar comments abt the chinese and women

And just like that, I understand that Lily’s eyesight is not coming back. The octopus took it simply because he was bored and he could.

Oh my god

Our efforts remind me of the old Helen Keller joke: How do you punish Helen Keller? Rearrange the furniture.

What the fuck

And what of the call from my own mother—whose love I pursue—right in the middle of the discussion? Coincidence?

Are you analyzing your own book rn?

Ring. Now, even that word is weird. How can it mean both the circles in a tree stump and the noise a telephone makes? Dial, ring.

Im sorry but can he stfu. The author just wrote an entire paragraph on ringing someonr

“Am I crazy?”

Bro youre a fucking lunatic

Don’t you have any favorite memories?” Lily thinks about this. “All of my memories are my favorite memories.”

“I’m looking for octopus.” A kind and wizened face that looks back at me confused. I try to explain so that he doesn’t inadvertently sell me some sort of Chinese goblin,

Why does he assume all chinese ppl dont speak english?

I toss the arm piece to Lily and it lands on the floor with a wet slap. Lily finds it almost instantly and gobbles it up with one bite.

Thats disgusting

Finally my shirt-sleeve is up near my shoulder and my entire tattoo is revealed: a dachshund standing triumphantly on the head of an octopus.

Instead of a pipe, he smokes (or vapes, I guess) an e-cigarette, which surprises me, and I find the whole thing distasteful and inauthentic.

Ted is driving me insane

We’re seventeen days into our journey and I wonder if we’re still alive.

Oh my god hes a lunatic

We’re too often guilty of thinking that our parents arrived on this planet as fully functioning adults on the day that we were born.

“She has a hurricane inside of her.” The man winks at me slowly, deliberately. “Doesn’t she.” Bile rises in my throat. Only three people know about the hurricane. Myself. Lily. And the octopus.

WHAT

nowhere on my face do I feel the scraggle of a beard, nowhere on my skin do I see color or evidence of weeks spent under the harsh sun aboard Fishful Thinking,

Did he dream the whole thing

We can still run. We can still break out of here. We can still choose life. But what kind of life would it be? Instead, I shower Lily’s face with kisses. “So many adventures we had. And I loved every one.”

Oh my god this is so sad

“I will love you forever. For the rest of my days and even all of the days after that.”

what we have can be taken from us. Even what we have that is special. And when it is taken, we will be tested.

Whatever the cause, she let her guard down. She failed to protect us. That is when the octopus came. She is the one at fault. She is the one to blame.

Bruh

A heart is judged not by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.

Discuss the scene in which Ted finally acknowledges that the octopus is, in fact, a tumor. What has changed? Did he kill the octopus? What is the significance of this semantic twist?

He accepted thatt lily was going to die