How to Make Apple Sauce

I took a slice of skin off my middle finger with the peeler, leaning over the garbage can.

Sticky apple juice mixed with blood. Not a nick, but a long, sliding slice, skin as translucent as

the apple’s. I waited until I’d finished peeling the apples to wash it. They would boil and simmer

the blood out anyway; that’s how it worked. I gently pushed the wire potato masher into the soft

apple slices until it turned to a lumpy brownish mush. I swirled it around in the pot, then

gradually applied some pressure. More mashing, more bleeding, more mashing… until I realized

my arm was lifting above my head, slamming the masher down into the pot over and over again,

bloody apple sauce spraying across my face. I wiped it into a mason jar and put it in the fridge.