“Goose” by Kim Chinquee

He said he’d gone to the dump to find a cheap ignition. But no luck and now the baby was crying. Duck, duck, goose, he said and I said that was for children, and he ate the corned beef and cabbage. I lulled the baby and wondered who the woman was who’d come by looking. Wrong place,, I’d told the woman, and the baby was feverish. Now the baby was asleep, my husband’s plate empty, him laughing at the TV, and I sat opposite him and asked what he’d been up to. The dump, he said again, but it was past midnight and I was about to ask about the woman-I closed my eyes and pictured my son lovely, awake, jumping with only a whisper.