4.  These things will not be in the story:  Nicky boy's real name, Baby girl's real name, the word “love,” how Nicky boy and Baby girl met, how they will break up, Nicky boy's religion, Nicky boy's mother, Baby girl's birth control, Nicky boy's renunciation of religion, Nicky boy's guilt, Baby girl's secret man on the side, Baby girl's birth marks, what either of them look like naked.

5.  Nicky boy said, “Baby girl, don't look,” but who could stop looking?  The man in the police car took the piece of knife and cut into his forearm.  Nicky boy didn't look away.  Baby girl didn't look away.  The man cut the shape of a woman, just a head and breasts and a skirt.  Not as much blood came out as one might expect.  The man cut the shape of a man with a penis as big as a head.  Again not blood like in the movies.  A woman and a man and a penis, carved into a criminal's arm.  Nicky boy squeezed his fingernails into his thumb, one after another.  They made little marks like the top halves of mouths.  The man in the police car pointed at the shape of the woman on his arm, and then pointed at Baby girl, blood getting on the window.  Baby girl grabbed Nicky boy's hand.  The man pointed at the shape of the man on his arm.  Finally he hesitated for a moment, the blood trickling down his skin to his rolled-up sleeve, before he made up his mind. He pointed at Nicky boy.  Nicky boy understood: the man in the police car couldn't get out.  The man pointed at them with the piece of knife.  He placed it beside him and unzipped his pants.  Nicky boy turned to Baby girl.  “Oh Baby girl,” he said.  Baby girl squeezed his fingers and shivered.  Nicky boy understood again: Baby girl, too, now believed in something no one else would ever believe.

Matthew Salesses is the author of the chapbook, We Will Take What We Can Get (Publishing Genius Press, Spring 2009). His fiction is forthcoming in Glimmer Train and Pleiades, among others, and has received awards from Glimmer Train, Mid-American, and IMPAC. He is the incoming editor of Redivider and writes nonfiction live at http://live-essays.blogspot.com.