I hid the babies in my closet. There were three--baby rabbits that fit in the palm of my hand. The stray cat that had taken to sleeping in our carport had killed their mother, and my step-sister and I found the babies in the dirt by the pool. N. wasn't living with us anymore, but …
"Do you remember me?" he asked. "From the party." I forgot what I was doing before the phone rang. I remembered him. "Of course," I said. He went on to ask me how my day was going. I talked, walking to my dorm room window, turning, walking to the door, and turning again. Back and …
"You know," my mom says to me, "how sometimes you can just tell." She sips her coffee. "That you're attracted to each other." I'm 20 and I don't know what she is talking about. You mean you can tell when a guy you like likes you back? "Oh, sure," I say and eat a french …
Continue reading You know what I mean, don’t you? Of course you do.
I'd been in country for a year when my dad called me to tell me my grandmother had died. I was not close to his mother but I felt sad. Dad visited his mother once in 40 years but sent her money regularly. She visited us a few times, but when my step-mother got her …
"I want you to know," my traveling companion said to me, "that I still respect you." He closed the bedroom door, knowing what rumors would fly through the other rooms while his fiance stood in the kitchen introducing herself to everyone. I was lying down with my stomach churning one way and my head spinning …
He says hello as if nothing is different, and maybe it isn't. You're not really sure because you were drunk. But you weren't that drunk. And it wasn't anything major. You didn't really do anything. Your stomach swings backward and forward anyway as he keeps talking to you as if you have never been closer …
"How about if we go for a walk?" he says, standing at my open door. He will soon be my traveling companion mentioned a while back, but I don't know this yet. When invites me to go with him, I am filled with optimism. We've been in-country for a week and the tactophobe is a …
"I don't want them in the house," I said to my step-sister. She wasn't living with us anymore, but she spent the night as often as she could that summer we were 14. My cousin, L., was staying at my dad's too. She was 13. The three of us were talking about boys. We were …
Continue reading Sometimes it is hard to find a good hiding place.
"Let's call your mother," my grandma said. It was a sunny summer day. I was home from college. Mom asked me how things were going. "Nothing earth shattering," I said. "Here, grandma wants to talk you." Grandma asked me to stay in the room and I sat on the floor looking at the squares of …
We said goodbye in the U-Haul parking lot the tactophobe and I. I didn't think he really cared about kissing me goodbye, but we'd taken that turn and it seemed required. Perhaps he'd finally kissed me in first place to prove something. I didn't know if he thought we ought to wait for each other …
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 