Loss of Breath

My Thoughts

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if something figurative became literal? Figurative expressions such as "I would lose my head" or "I'd give an arm and a leg". Well in this interesting tale, the narrator literally loses his breath, and in doing so he embarks on quite the misadventure.

While having an argument with his wife, the narrator loses his breath. He can't believe it. He abruptly walks away from his wife and seeks solitude to ponder what had happened. He contemplates suicide but decides instead to leave the country. Though on his way out of the country very strange things happen. In the coach he travels in, an extremely fat man sits on him and crushes his body. After a while, the fat man notices that the narrator has died. He really hasn't but since he has no breath they believe he is dead. They throw him out of the coach and ride over him, breaking bones. They then throw his trunk out and it lands on his head, fracturing it.

He is found and brought to a surgeon. The surgeon notices the narrator might be alive but still takes a few organs out of his abdomen to dissect. The surgeon leaves and a couple of cats end up taking the narrators ears and nose off. The intense pain then breaks him out of his stasis. He then jumps out of a window only to land in a cart where a prisoner is being transported. The prisoner happens to slightly look like the narrator so he escapes and the guards end up taking the narrator instead.

Finally the narrator is sent to be hung. The platform on the gallows drop and he hangs, but since he has no breath he can't suffocate. He puts on a show by writhing and squirming as to please the crowd. Once the spectacle is over he is buried in a public tomb. He breaks out and attempts to take the nose and ears of a cadaver when the cadaver speaks to him. What a coincidence that the man was the person who received the breath the narrator lost. The work together to escape the tomb.

My Rating

I rate this story a 3.7 out of 5. It is so ridiculous and full of coincidences that I found it extremely hilarious. When I think of the oddities inflicted due to a literal loss of breath I laugh.