For no reason other than absence, her mother bought her the world's sharpest knife. It wasn't like her mother to buy her knives, or any gifts for that matter, but there had been a two-for-one deal on the shopping network, and her mother was feeling sentimental.
   
She started by cubing a zucchini, which yielded like softened butter under the slightest pressure. Two russet potatoes, no problem. She brought home an armful of coconuts from the grocery store; they severed effortlessly into rounded halves. She tried the knife on a stray tire in the garage, astonished to learn it could be sundered. Her orange living room sofa, divided down the center, as if by order of Solomon himself; the mid-century modern dining table her husband had bought at auction and refinished by hand. She sliced the very tips of her fingers, and growing more assured with each motion, worked her way to her elbow. When a neighbor visited for coffee the next morning, she was three feet shorter and positively convinced.

Ravi Mangla is the author of the novel Understudies. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, Salon, The Kenyon Review, American Short Fiction and others. He lives in Rochester, NY.

Read Abagail Guinn's 2½ Questions interview with Ravi.

Detail of photo art on main page courtesy of Takuma Nakawaga.

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