Reprieve
by Matthew Jakubowski
If you push the bathmat into exactly the right position everything for the next hour or so should be okay. After showering you’ll step over the edge of the tub and nudge the bathmat with your foot to align it with the gridlines of the tile before settling both feet into the deep fluff of the bathmat. Warm, clean, aligned, you will be able to look in the mirror. The face there will stare into you. You will be able to shave, unlike the week before. You will be able to put away thoughts of the funeral and the screaming and the scene at the cemetery. You will get lucky when you’re done shaving, there will be no blood on your face. There will be no blood to remind you. You will pat your face with cold water. You will look down to check. The bathmat will be in the right place. You will be free for at least one more day to put on your robe and walk away.
BIO
Matthew Jakubowski (he/him) is a multi-genre writer based in West Philadelphia. His debut chapbook of micro and flash, Ghost in the Rain, was published this spring by Bottlecap Press. His stories are forthcoming from BULL Magazine and appear in Best Microfiction, Identity Theory, Elsewhere Magazine, Doric Literary, Boudin, and Gone Lawn. More info at mattjakubowski.com.
BOOKS
Ghost in the Rain (Bottlecap Press)
SOCIAL MEDIA
Bluesky: @mattjakubowski
Instagram: @matt_jakubowski