What Gravity Said Under the Stars by David Henson

I found you sitting at the kitchen table. When I asked who you were, you said you were gravity. I laughed until I noticed that your arms sank into the tabletop. When I asked what you were doing in my house, you said you were everywhere. I turned on the brewer.

—

Out the window, a leaf drifted to the ground. You smiled.

I told you to help yourself. You went for coffee, your feet settling into the tile as if it were plush carpet. I told you I was going back upstairs to shower. You said you were already there.

—

As I showered the spray ran down my legs. I looked around and covered myself with the washcloth.

—

When I came back down, you weren’t at the table. I wondered if you’d left or had been my imagination. Then I felt myself pulled toward the den. I peeked in and saw a book fly out of the shelf and snuggle onto your lap. As I walked in, you flipped through a few pages and said it was mostly right as far as it went. 

You leaned back and said you could feel someone’s impression. Someone not me. 

I shrugged and could feel your stare. I told you it was the chair my ex-wife always sat in. You kept staring. I wondered how much to say but decided to tell you everything. You were gravity after all. Who were you going to tell? Time? 

—

I told you how I’d make my ex-wife pay by winning away her joy. The more I spoke, the deeper I sank into the recliner.

—

We sat under the stars. I raised my hand toward the Milky Way and said none of it would exist without you. 

You placed your hand on my chest and said you yourself had no choice.

A shooting star streaked across the sky. I wasn’t sure what to wish for.

David Henson and his wife reside in Illinois. His work has been selected for Wigleaf’s Top 50 Very Short Fictions 2026 longlist, nominated for Pushcart Prizes, Best Small Fictions, Best of the Net, and has appeared in various publications including Gastropoda Lit Mag, Best Microfictions 2025, Ghost Parachute, Moonpark Review, Maudlin House, and Gone Lawn. His website is http://writings217.wordpress.com. His X handle is @annalou8.