Non-Fiction

We are in my girlfriend’s apartment in Lawrence, a room of white walls and carpet crisscrossed with fresh vacuum trails…

Dark hair matted to the little girl’s head. Her lips were dried and cracked; her eyes sunken. Despite her olive-toned skin, she was pale.

I feel safe and warm, and I drift to sleep with the smell of apples, sugar, and butter gently filling my nose.

My father puts his hands on my shoulders. I haven’t seen him in ten years, but he looks good.

The city of Page sleeps as I slide my leg over my motorcycle. The sun crowns over the horizon and sets the desert aglow.

There they were. A family of two. In a house with strong bones and a living room ready to hold them.

I had no more an idea of what to expect as I would going on a blind-date in a black hole…”

His black dog led him to a noose at the end of a rope. I was fearful she was on a similar path.

In my mind I beg her silently, don’t ask him about memory loss. He remembers the words to the songs that make him happy.