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The Bedroom

A piano bench, creaky beds, a carving of a swan’s neck and head

Too Close For Comfort

A fifty-dollar bill every Christmas, the enveloping calm of crystalline snow and limitless sky, a blip on a monitor

Possessed

There were strange hands on me. Some were small and cold; others seemed large and rough and smelled of sawdust and cinnamon. It was my third time at the new church, but I’d seen nothing like this before. The hands belonged to male church elders, who were encircling me in front of the entire congregation.

Fast Talk

At fourteen, shoplifting is fun. Like a sport, it takes a lot of skill. I have to be quick and gutsy and able to fool people. I put on my good-girl face and wear my cargo pants because they have deep pockets.

Nothing To Lose

Early-onset Alzheimer’s, a nonmonogamous relationship, an upright piano

Sunbeams

Men are stupid and women are crazy. And the reason women are so crazy is because men are so stupid.

George Carlin

Lavender

As a child I thought of my mother and father in terms of centuries. This man and this woman had lived forever, it seemed, born wholly formed and unchanging, waiting patiently for my sisters and me to come along. Had someone told me my parents were, in truth, scarcely more than children themselves, I would have considered it a lie to rival the tooth fairy.