She wanted the world. She wished for the first crisp bite of every red apple. She sought to paint a satisfying stroke across each of our white walls before leaving the room. My Celeste, full of light, sat and thought and was filled with want. That year I selected a gift she would treasure. I […]
One Friday in July I knocked off work early because I was seeing someone later in the West Village. As a census taker in Harlem, I knew where to buy the best bean pie, ginger beer, smothered chicken, pork ribs, and what have you. I also knew all the sidewalk vendors. That Friday, I was […]
Olivia runs her hand up and down the glass. Blue Moon swirls, drops of condensation pooling in the lines of her palm. She wants to wipe her hand on her thighs, but she came straight from work and is wearing a dress. The water droplets will show. She doesn’t want Tom to see. Her eyes […]
Chadda told people her husband died raking leaves. This wasn’t true. He’d rolled his ankle while rushing around to bag up the leaves, but he hadn’t keeled over dead or anything. She thought this was a technicality. After he came limping into the house, she’d wrapped an ice pack in a tea towel and propped […]
“Do you know what sleep means?” joked Jamie. “It’s a combination of be and quiet.” He was bothered again, like a torn-up telegram. Alicia rolled her eyes. Jamie’s anger may have been mislaid, but it was Sunday night and someone up the street had fired a gun. Frightened him. Two or three times a month […]
The drive started out pleasantly. When I left Pittsburgh, I didn’t really know where I was going. I dropped my sister off at the airport, taking her all the way to the gate, because she’s only seventeen and the airport will allow clingy guardians like myself to get a gate pass, if they show their […]
Anya screams from the attic and I know at once she has found the crocodile. I remain by the living room window. It’s March and outside, the Yorkshire Dales are a faded khaki after winter. The fields surrounding my childhood home in Brazil never seemed to change hue. Between harvests, the air shimmered over plants […]
It starts as these things always do with the first one. You don’t notice it at first. It is just there waiting to be seen. A dead wasp in a shop window it’s never really remarked upon. It is just there. When the second one and then the third one appears, people begin to notice. […]
The Lost Body My body is missing. I woke up one morning and I was there, but my body wasn’t. There was no body. My body had disappeared. Have you seen it? My body? It’s missing. My body is missing so I want to ask the strangers on the street if they have seen it. […]
Without my knowledge, my body made the decision that I can only cry once, maybe twice a year. I try to look back and nail down when this order was signed into effect to no avail. One day, it all just stopped. But if I had to guess, I would say I came to notice […]
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