I Had a Psychotic Episode

I was lying under a bridge in Northland, nestled among weeds, vines, and ferns. My arms were covered in dirt. I had eaten a daisy and swallowed a tiny sip of stagnant water from a puddle. I was tearing leaves off the ferns to disperse entropy, reading aloud the ingredients from discarded chip packets.I began reciting the places I had lived and the names of friends I had made along the way: Auckland, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Queenstown. I got to my friend Kyle from Queenstown and tried to remember his daughter’s name. I knew it was connected to Pokémon. Then I remembered.“Eevee!”Just then, a hospital staff member appeared on the road above me. His name was Adam. He was wearing blue gloves and refused to shake my hand. He told me there were three women looking for me, and then he asked me a strange question: “Which one is your wife?”I chose Masha. (The blonde one.)I guess it all started a few years earlier, late in the evening at our old house in West…