The Unconscious Divinations of a Queen-size Bed
…after the transaction, Rodrigo and Ana stare at the smear of them on the bed.

by Hossannah Asuncion

The Analyst of Beds

He asks her what she sees; it will help him to psychodiagnose their relationship. It concerns him that she cannot detect (what would be clearly obvious to a well-adjusted person) the two clowns holding hands and laughing. She doesn't see a crab, a good thing: her viewpoint of herself and other women is positive. But what she does see, a vagina and a butterfly, indicates a personality stunted in its emotional development. Her inability to form healthy emotional connections will make it difficult for him to introduce her to his mother, who daughterless, relies on Rodrigo to bring her women to shop with.

The Prophet of Beds

Ana stares at the stain and portends a brief future. It ends at a dinner neither of them finishes when they argue over the meaning of one of her dreams: his mother dies tragically before his wedding. Rodrigo suggests the dream reveals Ana's suppressed aggression towards his mother, while Ana simply replies that his mother should avoid traveling down the Lincoln Tunnel on rainy days. She envisions in the southern hemisphere of the whitish blot a sommelier spilling a few drops of Beaujolais, staining her favorite red dress. Rodrigo will be upset, but a week after the dinner, he notices a woman with several shopping bags at her feet on the 4 train. He proposes to her six months later. His mother is very happy, but is unable to attend the wedding.

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Hossannah Asuncion struggles with an internal east coast vs. west coast conflict and is considering moving to Omaha. In 2007 she received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence and was a Kundiman fellow.