Two Fictions
Greg Mulcahy

Distillation

Another quagmire though no immediate danger to him. Money to be made for those ready to make money. Danger to the suffering combatants who suffered among themselves. The only hope the idea of a new machine or new group of machines.
She, for example, wanted a water distiller.
A water distiller, he told her, is called a still.
These you buy for home use.
He did not see the use in home use other than maybe a savings over what they paid at the store. The savings would have to accrue to offset the cost of the machine before they were true savings. At the rate they used distilled water he thought it would take a thousand years.
What if, she said.
What if.
What if the water stopped being purified or the storm came or the oil ran out or the grid failed or the order broke down or the terrorists attacked.
What if, he said, all of it.
Then, she said.
Then, he said, none of it.



Curse

I wish you would go, she said.
Then, I wish you would die.
Then, I'll kill you.
Then, go to hell.
Not all at once one after the next, but he got the idea.