(thing) by jessicapierce Fri Dec 31 1999 at 6:40:43
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  • Dad had died and a man came to appraise the coupons. A square tin full of nutmeats. The papers disappeared under the sweep of his hand. The cats didn't like him.

  • I was the girl from Crooked. It was Amos's idea to hide the homeless in the basement - keep them silent as if hiding them from the Holocaust instead of just from my father. I put my foot on the vent in the bathroom, thinking how warm it would be in the basement. I could feel the warm air through my sock.

  • My mother stood at the top of the stairs looking down. Is that what your father told you? Yes, I said, sticking a needle into a spool of thread. Someone had spilled water into the sewing basket and I felt the damp cloth lining.

  • I lunged forward to grab the baby and tip him upside down, to make him laugh. I was embarrassed when everyone in the room fell silent - it may have been a funeral, everything was somber, it was not a room to make babies laugh in.

  • I knew I hadn't served myself correctly, had managed to mangle the appearance of the whole dish, and would be silently ridiculed.

  • Noah said, want to go to Wisconsin? and I said yes without thinking of consequences. The car made me sick. Once there, I was worried about disappearing without telling work I would be gone. I was sure I would come home to no job.

  • Someone was tipping up my chin. You get your paleness from your mother.

  • Picking up reese's peanut butter cups in the backyard, with the others. They were disgusted, throwing them away, but I slipped mine into the pockets of my green sweatshirt, greedily, for later. The foil was cold from being on the ground.

  • With a magic pencil I could trim myself away. But I knew I would always be gargantuan.


I like it!

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