Hiccups

By: Megan Cramer

The spasms shook her body, rhythmically shaking her center every five to ten seconds. She cried out to the heavens for release. She tried the breath method: breathe in fully for five, hold for five, and then breathe out slowly, as through a straw, for ten. She tried her grandmother’s method: “what were you doing this same day a year ago?” to distract her mind from the earth shaking spasms. But it was only the typing of words, the recording of the experience, the getting-to-100-words that finally calmed the diaphragm. She breathed an uninterrupted breath and turned out the light.