Dwellers

Hello all! My newest book, Dwellers, was released by Visprint in July 2014, and is now available in major Philippine book stores. 

I'm posting the first five chapters here for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.

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Part I

A Strange House in a Strange City

 

1

The Holmes and Rahe stress scale lists 43 stressful life events that may lead to illness. (I read this in a book – when you're wheelchair-bound and injured you can do mostly nothing but read.) Every life event has corresponding Life Change Units. This is my list – 

Death of a close family member – 63

Personal injury or illness –53

Change in living conditions –25

Revision of personal habits – 24

Change in residence – 20

Change in sleeping habits – 16

Change in eating habits – 15

– for a whopping total of 216 Life Change Units. I don't know if I should add "Gaining a New Family Member" (39 points); I've known Louis (I should get used to calling him this name – Louis) all my life, but I've never shared a house with him. Does that count? 

He stresses me out because he looks stressed out with all the cuts on his face and arms. His constant attention is breaking my heart. Maybe he could add the 39 points to his own list.

If I add that, I get 255 points, still 45 points short of the requisite 300, which means "at risk of illness". At this point, I'm still not at risk? "Risk of illness is moderate". 

This is bullshit.

How many Life Change Units apply to a "Change in Body"? "Change in Residence" is a mere 20 points. A change in body is a thousandfold more disorienting.

I don't know why I'm even bothering with this stress scale. It doesn't apply to Louis and me. Our collective stress is on a whole other planet.

I should be doing something more productive.

I wish I could walk.

I wish I could just kill this body and inhabit another.