My Bellybutton by Jonah Eller-Isaacs

MY BELLYBUTTON is amazing. It is a mysterious gastrointestinal portal. It is beautiful, and shapely, and inward-looking, and it is powerful. My bellybutton is remarkable. It creates more lint than a dryer. I have no need for a lint catcher. Why would I need something I can create in my own time, with nothing but my body and the clothes on my back?
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“What would you do if I gouged my eyes out? Right here in front of you?”

He adjusted his wool hat as he awaited an answer. When none came:

“It’d be reeeeeal messy. Prolly ruin your suit, you’d be all bloody on the subway, no one sittin’ next to you. No way.”

There was still no answer from the man who sat very still with both feet flat on the cement.

Bud Oliver drove up in his old, much used Ford pick-up, parked and got out a little slow; Bud was no spring chicken.

Greeting the loafers in front of the general store with one of his sarcastic but friendly remarks, "well, I'll bet this bunch ain't hit a lick of work today and probably wont tomorrow ether," they all laughed and old man Hiram Baffle spoke up "you mighty right, not if we can get some idjit to do it for us, Bud, and speaking of that, why don't you just run over to my place and paint the back porch and while your at it go ahead and mow that little piece of grass I call a yard."

The young lovers fell in love and spent years wrapped in each others arms. The days blended together and time became rich parcels of memory. Pictures overflowed, each one a snapshot of emotion on their journeys through life. The tracks along which they traveled gradually began to lie across their brows, in furrows of yesterdays and mundane responsibilities. But the lines along their mouths told of happiness and joy. Theirs was a love unparalleled. But unbeknown to them there was a fallen tree in the road ahead and they drove unaware, staring out the window and glancing back at each other. They drove holding hands and enjoying the path they had chosen.

So this is how it goes. “Take a deep breath,” he said. “Breathe deep cause this might be the last breath you take.” I closed my eyes and pictured my lungs inside my mind. I inhaled all the air my lungs could handle—it was the most thoughtful breath I have ever taken.

"30 minutes ‘til we're there right?" It’s a sign that really says, "Well I guess this is the end of the night right?"