The leaves fell late that autumn, and Sheila and Harold fought over who would have to rake.
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A mixed-race man has just learned that his mother is cancer free. She couldn’t say more because she was tired, and the reception is bad where he’s at, a cabin in the forest, Northern California.
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Somebody’s been stealing Mom’s bike. Her wheels, she likes to call it. The first time she left it on the side deck, which is visible from the street. Unfortunate, but preventable, I thought.
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Our tap water usually tastes like hedgehog, except in the spring when it tastes like snake. Today our neighbor’s Jack Russell jumps into the well, so it tastes like wet dog.
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I was in my twenties, wandering through downtown Philly in a tight skirt and tall boots. I had a baggie in my sock. The guy at the door didn’t check my purse after all. Just glanced at my ID and waved me inside.
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There aren’t flowers in Darnell’s yard, just big rocks. He unlocks the door and says, “Take off your shoes.” I do as I’m told.
I’m wearing Vans. White Girl Shoes.
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They tend to his body first. They are gagging but try to hide it out of respect for the astronaut’s feelings. They clean him, they comfort him, and they bring him back down into the embrace of gravity.
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I went home to Levittown, and there I found my best friend waiting for me, no older than when I left her twenty years ago. I said, Wow, you look the same as the day I left you. No. No. No, she said. You!
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You only saw the half of it. You can only see so much in that white baptism of light. You, centered in the theater. Te audience: rows of heads, knuckles in the dark.
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There’s a window on the kitchen door that opens into Mother’s soul.
Sundays in Lahore are a lazy business. I roll out of bed by 1 pm; the heat has already baked my exposed skin. The cup of tea and a piece of fried naan, both warmed perfectly, are already on my table.
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Arik at the Jerusalem Print Workshop shows us something the cost of this month’s mortgage payment. The cost of painting the walls in the two girls’ bedrooms and the accent walls in the kitchen and on the staircase.
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