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The bread became moldy in a few hours. He cut the mold off of his piece with meticulous care, bit by bit, until it became tattered and torn like a rag-child of old. She left the mold on her piece. She thought it was like Christmas, all spangle and decoration and celebration. The funny thing is, they could have purchased a new loaf of bread from the store downstairs where they had purchased the first one. They could have berated the small, dark shop owner until he became fearful of a health code violation and supplied them with bread upon bread for their stomachs.

But they chose to keep their pieces of bread, and eat the pieces together in bed. And then she slept a long, delicious sleep and dreamt of peach trees and the moment you let your breath come out of your mouth after you drive through a tunnel. He didn’t dream at all, but woke up at three with a horrible pain in his liver and his legs and ran to the toilet where he vomited out his life - for he hit his head on the seat after one particularly violent wretch and was drowned in the toilet water.