# Cocommitant



## Fats Velvet (Dec 11, 2014)

Before she leaves for work, my girlfriend grabs my jaw.  I wake up and she whispers.  I can tell why she woke me up by the tension in my jaw.  My teeth ache, vocal flaps rubbed raw like two pieces of sandpaper, my brow valleys and peaks with wrinkles set in stone.  She whispers, I can sleep.  You are not at work.  Relax your jaw.

My teeth grind to crookedness while I sleep, assuming there is gum in my mouth.  I have placed so many orders the script pours from me verbatim and with perfect clarity, unconsciously.  Like a law of nature the questions are always the same, the answers correspond, and the work is binary, small talk unnecessary.  Customers have called me a machine.  Sometimes they ask if I am a machine.  The pause before I answer is half the answer.   

I dream computer dreams and ask my girlfriend for her phone number.


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## ppsage (Dec 12, 2014)

I wanted to comment on this, for I quite like it. 
I think if I were creating the word co-commitant, I would be inclined to put a hyphen in it.
*I can sleep* >> can't sleep?


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## Cran (Dec 14, 2014)

I don't often find such a well-textured vignette in non fiction; more often in fictional pieces. Well done. 

This bit did throw an odd kink - 


> She whispers, *I can sleep*.  You are not at work.  Relax your jaw.


Given the context - she on her way off to work, pausing to offer concerned advice - I think she would whisper, *you can sleep*. You are not _etc_.


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## Plasticweld (Dec 16, 2014)

Fats Velvet said:


> The pause before I answer is half the answer.




That is a brilliant line....Wish I thought of that one, powerful and concise


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## Kevin (Dec 16, 2014)

> I think she would whisper, *you can sleep*. You are not _etc._


Yeah, or that I


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## escorial (Apr 19, 2015)

bravo man


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