Choke

Chapter 48

IN ANOTHER MINUTE, THE ARMS COME AROUND ME from behind. Some police detective is hugging me tight, double-fisting me under the rib cage, breathing into my ear, "Breathe! Breathe, damn it!"

Breathing into my ear, "You're okay."

Two arms hug me, lift me off my feet, and a stranger whispers, "You're going to be fine."

Periabdominal pressure.

Somebody pounds me on the back the way a doctor pounds a newborn baby, and I let fly with the bottle cap. My bowels burst loose down my pant leg with the two rubber balls and all the shit piled up behind them.

My entire private life made public.

Nothing left to hide.

The monkey and the chestnuts.

In the next second, I'm collapsed on the floor. I'm sobbing while someone tells me how everything is all right. I'm alive. They saved me. I almost died. They hold my head to their chest and rock me, saying, "Just relax."

They put a glass of water to my lips and say, "Hush."

They say it's all over.