Brain Damage

by Freida McFadden

introduce me. “—And grandma made chicken last night for dinner, but I didn’t like it, so we went to McDonald’s and I wanted chicken nuggets, but she said I couldn’t because I didn’t want to eat chicken,” Sam is saying. “But chicken and chicken nuggets are completely different. Chicken is white and doesn’t taste good, and chicken nuggets are brown and crunchy.”

“We’re trying to figure out who shot Charly in the head,” Dr. Vincent explains. “It was either her husband or a burglar.” Amy’s eyes widen and she proceeds to lecture us about how we shouldn’t talk about these kinds of things.

“Maybe in the dream, you could ask him to move?” Helga suggests. “And while you’re at it,” Angela says, “You can ask him not to shoot you.”

“Please calm down, Mr. Douglas,” she says. “I’m certain that was an accident. Wasn’t it, Mr. Knox?” “Of course,” Jamie says, his eyes darkening. “Why? Do you think you did something to my friend Charly that would make me want to hit you?”