after Crockett Johnson
One evening, after putting the kids to bed and leaving her husband to his football game, Charlotte decides to spend her free time drinking. There isn’t any wine, and Charlotte needs wine if she wants to drink, and she needs somewhere to set her glass. So she uses her Forbidden Fruit lipstick to draw a high top cocktail table and a glass of wine filled to the brim with merlot. She doesn’t want to drink in her bedroom, so she draws a disco ball and a dance floor. But she doesn’t feel like dancing, so she draws a doorway and walks through it. And the wineglass goes with her.
The door leads to where Charlotte thinks a restaurant should be. She doesn’t want to sit with others, so she makes a very small restaurant with just one table. It turns out to be a seafood restaurant. The fish would be very tasty if Charlotte hadn’t just eaten a whole box of animal crackers with her kids. So she puts a waiter beside the table to guard her dinner. But he is a terribly frightening waiter who sneers at anyone who steps too close. He even frightens Charlotte. She backs away, and her hand holding the glass shakes, spilling all her wine on the floor.
She quickly draws herself a door and steps through it, into a kitchen, where she searches until she finds a pantry. She uses her lipstick to fill the pantry with nothing but wine, all nine kinds that Charlotte likes best. When she finishes tasting each one and fills her glass to the brim again, there is quite a lot left. She hates to see so much wine go to waste. So Charlotte leaves a very thirsty mom and a deserving nanny to finish it up.
And the sight of them reminds her of her kids at home in bed, and she misses them, and so she looks for her bedroom window. But she can’t see it or even any buildings. So, she uses her lipstick to draw a house with windows. And she peers in those windows from the front yard. But none of the windows is her window. She tries to remember where her window ought to be, but she’s had too much to drink. She draws more windows. She makes a mcmansion full of windows. She sketches more houses to peer into. She makes a whole subdivision of houses. But none of the houses is hers. She can’t imagine where hers might be—all the houses look the same.
She decides to ask a neighborhood watchman. The watchman reminds her that even though they live in a gated community, she can’t drink in public spaces. He tells her there will be a fine if she breaks the rules again. She says nothing but backs away while shielding her wineglass.
And she walks along, wishing she were in her room, in her bed, kids snoring softly next door. Then, suddenly, Charlotte remembers where her wineglass is. It sits atop the high top cocktail table. So she draws a table below her glass. And then she draws her bed. And she gets in it and draws up the covers. The wine glass drops on the floor. And Charlotte drops off to sleep.
But five minutes later, the baby cries, and a half hour after that the five-year-old has a nightmare. And Charlotte wishes she’d gone into a different house.
Laura Leigh Morris is the author of The Stone Catchers: A Novel (2024) and Jaws of Life: Stories (2018). She’s previously published short fiction in STORY Magazine, North American Review, The Florida Review, and other journals. She teaches creative writing and literature at Furman University in Greenville, SC. To learn more, visit www.lauraleighmorris.com.