Fifteen unrelated stories titled 'The man inside her pillowcase'

1.
She doesn’t know there is a man inside her pillowcase. At night, she is drowning him. Her drool seeps through the pillowcase and covers him, drenches him. It is overwhelming. He’s tried sleeping in a raincoat and scuba mask, but the moisture always finds a way in. It clogs his ears and clings to his eyelashes. He doesn’t open his mouth to speak or eat, fearing the saliva will roll down his throat and choke him. He is so quiet, the man inside her pillowcase. 

2.
The man inside her pillowcase likes to be between her legs. He feels safe there. She tucks him in every night and he nestles against her crotch, damp and warm.

3.
While she sleeps, the man inside her pillowcase gnaws at her. Eats bits of her hair and freckles. Each morning she wakes and is a little less herself than the day before. She spends all her time looking for things she can’t remember, lists she never made, and people she never knew.

4.
The man is trapped inside her pillowcase. He thought he could escape, but then she put the pillow sham on and he couldn’t find a way out. After a bit, the pillow sham made him feel more comfortable, like she was the kind of girl that would piss with the bathroom door open and drink beers with him on Sunday.

5.
The man inside her pillowcase has not always lived inside her pillowcase. He once lived in a baseball, a cooler, a DVD player, a dictionary, a package of bubble wrap and a can of tuna fish. He cannot stand the smell of tuna fish.

6.
The man inside her pillowcase is not quite a man. Legally, HE is still a SHE. But she has the paperwork for a legal name change in her glove box. And she just started hormone therapy. The name she picked for herself was “John,” so she would blend in.

7.
The man inside her pillowcase has been submitting stories to the Paris Review once a year, since he was nine years old. The rejection letter he receives each year hasn’t changed. One time there was a footprint on the envelope.

8.
The man inside her pillowcase has trouble sleeping at night because his nipple piercings are infected and every time she rolls over, it rubs his chest raw, till bleeding. He holds his hands over his chest, but bleeds through the pillowcase anyway.

9.
The man inside her pillowcase has no upper body strength. Instead he spends all his time running laps around her pillow and stretching his calves. He worries about shin splints.

10.
The man inside her pillowcase applied to law school and got into North Eastern Ohio with full tuition and fee waivers. He plans to buy a house and give his cat away.

11.
The man inside her pillow keeps her awake at night, practicing ‘da stanky leg,’ a dance he never feels comfortable doing at the urban club he frequents on Saturday nights. He can’t bend and twist his leg like the other guys.

12.
The man inside her pillowcase refuses to come out because he is ashamed of the crown tattoo he got on the back of his neck. He just thought it looked cool. He had no idea it was a gang symbol for the Latin Kings.

13.
She is in love with the man inside her pillowcase. At night, after her boyfriend falls asleep, she whispers into her pillowcase. She breathes heavy and rubs her tongue across it.

14.
The man inside her pillowcase is unsure about their relationship. He doesn’t want to move west with her and he doesn’t want to break up. “Can’t we just see what happens?” he asks.

15.
One morning she wakes to find the man inside her pillowcase is dead. She isn’t surprised. She knows if she hadn’t suffocated him, he would have smothered her.