(028)
“Do you ever think,” Seb leans to his right to pass the joint to José, smoke filtering out of his mouth as he speaks, his voice flat and congested, “how we see through our eyes–” he exhales, releasing the rest in a billowing cloud, “and the word to describe our being…is I.”
José squints as he breathes in, the red cherry brightening before his nose the longer he pulls.
“It’s like–” Seb goes on, “if everything you see through your eyes is your universe…then the entire universe– or billions of universes actually– can all be condensed down into one single letter.”
José pulls the spliff away from his mouth, then takes one last micro drag before handing it back to Seb, who accepts it eagerly.
“– literally just a single line, like a digit– like a 1!” Seb pinches the joint between his lips, mirroring José’s squint while he does.
José breathes out at the same time that Seb’s lungs reach capacity and he puts his hand out ready for the passover.
“– it must be on purpose, right?…Like a code in language?” Seb’s hand shakes as he tries to place the joint between José’s thumb and finger, his voice strained and smoke leaking between his words.
José taps the ash from the end, then hawks and spits next to it.
“Yeah…maybe….,” he considers, his head foggy and the desire to continue to smoke now dissipating, “but in Spanish it doesn’t work–” he offers it back to Seb who declines, so he scrapes the tip against the tree to his left to put it out. “Are you hungry?”
Seb exhales another great cloud, rubbing his belly as if to ask its opinion.
“Yeah…” he nods, “I could eat.”
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