6: Massachusetts

If M and N are riding their bicycles down Broadway toward M’s apartment in Somerville, with M sprinting the final three-block stretch and N continuing at a leisurely pace of maybe two-thirds M’s speed and squinting at the sunlight glinting off the piles of snow while enjoying the unseasonably pleasant weather of just above zero degrees, then:


If O and P are inside their apartment already sitting on the couch where N sleeps sometimes and watching a movie while lifting bottles of beer from the coffee table to their mouths, O gulping twice as much and P sipping his half as often


If R shouts and S slams on the brakes, wheels locking tires skidding, screeching and speed decreasing, ice melting with the heat of friction


If P and O hear the tires screech first, and N after a fraction of a second


If M can see the car coming


If


If


If M feels sky beneath him


If N screams at a steady pitch, but feels his voice climbing like a siren


If O and P feel the couch drop away while the walls rush past at different rates, the front door contracting exponentially in their direction


If R and S reverse, lurch back to their seats and feel their panic decelerating as they skid back up the street with ice refreezing light retreating and O devouring her shouted words of warning as M leaps up and races backwards toward N


If Q (you) observe everything, measure the v of S and R, find the x and y of P and O, calculate the a of N, and plot the parabolic f of M; and if you watch it let it and make it happen because the solution just feels and looks and sounds so perfect beautiful and tragic, like the saddest word in any language, like the most heartbreaking song in the world, then: