Found: Random Exercise from Old Notebook

“I bet all of this will be over soon,” Judith said. She set the bunt cake on the wet counter. The pan rattling against the Formica, sizzling.

Anna wasn’t comforted—not by the smell of cake or by her sister-in-law’s attitude or by everything she’d looked up on the Internet about her symptoms. Her condition on top of her condition.

“It just as likely that it won’t be over soon,” Anna said. She put another cherry in her mouth and bit gently, as not to crack a tooth on the seed. She tossed the stem on the pile next to the pitting machine. “Aren’t we done yet?”

"No," Judith said. Anna picked up a handful of cherries and put them in the bowl. She turned the crank to roll them around until all of them had been taken in by the crank, had the pit forced out of it and been spit out the other end.

Judith’s forehead was shiny. The wallpaper curled from the heat. Anna felt like taking her shirt off, and her obnoxious, sticky, tight bra. It was all very restricting. She leaned back in the kitchen chair, the baby weighing on top of her, her breasts spread from their resting place on her stomach. She could feel prickling hairs in her armpits.

Judith turned to her. Anna got up and walked into the back yard. She looked at the tree, and put her hand around a limb—flexible enough to sag with cherries but strong enough not to crack. There was a breeze at the top where the branches were thin and light flexible. She shoved her foot in the crotch of the branches and hoisted herself up.