The Fungible Trajectories of Carol by Damian Dressick

In her late 30s and attractive, Carol uses sex.
    Belonging to fifteen Internet dating sites and employing more than 25 screen names, she has been meeting for sex with as many as six different men—sometimes two before lunch—each day. Missionary, girl-on-top, doggie, Carol is ambivalent. She is motivated in this only by quantity and novelty of partner.
    Carol's employment of sex serves, at this point, a broad array of purposes. Mood enhancement. Self-congratulation. Nourishment. Sustenance. Comfort. As a reason to punish herself. As the punishment. To add drama to what is an otherwise dull life. To feel desired. Needed. Loved.
    As a freelance writer living in a major metropolitan area, Carol's schedule and surroundings not uncomfortably allow this kind of behavior. As a lapsing Catholic and someone who is reasonably concerned about the contraction of STDs, her ethics and health concerns do their best to rein it in.
    As American readers plunged into the middle of this recounting in the opening decade of the 21st century, we will probably not be comfortable with this going on much longer. As Carol's "bad behavior" began approximately three months ago—on the heels of her breaking things off with her fiancé—we can likely abide this acting out only for a few more weeks, a month at most. So where do things go from here?

•If, at gun point, you would announce yourself a political liberal, try ending A:

•If, on the other hand, you consider yourself a political conservative, try ending B:

•If you have no distinct political beliefs, there are probably better uses to be made of your time than a careful reading of this story. Please skip to the end.
    A. Following a pregnancy scare, Carol sees the error of her ways and sets up an appointment at the counseling center. After being diagnosed with hyper-sexual hypomania, Carol is prescribed a five milligram daily dose of a powerful mood stabilizer and spends several difficult months in therapy where she does her best to work out issues involving self-esteem, her relationship with her father and the meaning of interaction with men in general. After a fusillade of false "breakthroughs," Carol eventually comes to understand that her body chemistry predisposes her to react to stress by seeking out even greater stress. Terming this "Carol's Fucked Up Law of Relativity," she enrolls in an M.F.A program well-respected for its competencies in creative non-fiction where she writes and revises her bestselling memoir, "My Life As a Slut."
    B. After a condom breaks while Carol engages in a threesome at the Holiday Inn, she contracts HIV. Due to her habits and lack of self-control, she spreads the disease to two more men before the results of her test come back from the free clinic at Planned Parenthood. Upon learning that she is responsible for the men's illnesses, Carol's guilt rules her life like an absolutist monarch. She becomes dangerously depressed and takes to blowing what little freelance money she is still capable of earning on binge drinking and crystal meth. Both of these substances dramatically reduce the effectiveness of the retroviral cocktail prescribed by her doctor, although this matters less than one would suspect, as Carol loses her health insurance six months down the road and can no longer afford the medicine. As her body thins dangerously, Carol maxes out her credit cards to finance a trip to Italy where she spends her last drifting days sniffing Afghani heroin and watching the sun retreat slowly into the slate blue Mediterranean.
    In many stories of this length, it is customary to withhold a critical piece of information, a fact that makes you view the story in a wholly other light. Even though the multiple choice form employed in "The Fungible Trajectories of Carol" may have already come close to exhausting your readerly tolerance for innovation or gimmick, this tale is no exception. Are you ready?
    Here is the end:

Carol (or her ravaged and angry ghost, depending) arrives at your flat. She may be holding a weapon, a machine pistol, perhaps, or simply clutching a cup of very hot tea, but what is non-negotiable is her demand you explain to her satisfaction—and the very best of your ability—your rationale for answering as you did and until you do there isn't even the slightest she's going anywhere.

About the author:
Damian Dressick lives and writes in Pittsburgh, Pa. So far this year his fiction has appeared in McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Vestal Review, Flashquake, 63 Channels, 55 Words, 3711 Atlantic and other literary journals. Damian has fiction upcoming this fall in Caketrain, The Worcester Review, The Kennesaw Review and Contrary Magazine. He holds an M.F.A from the University of Pittsburgh and has recently completed his first novel. He teaches creative writing at Robert Morris University and at the University of Pittsburgh through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. With the poet Terrance Hayes, he coordinates Pittsburgh's UPWords reading series.