She’s gonna be pissed when she wakes up. Realizes I went to the movies without her. But I was too tired to leave. Too tired even to look up movies and instead read the back of the wine label. Those labels either say very astute things or nothing at all, and that’s how you know you’re dealing with a good bottle or a so-so bottle. A good bottle will tell you what to expect in a universally agreed upon vocabulary: floral, levels of oak, that sort of thing, and suggest some pairing options, lamb or pate or crème brûlée. A so-so bottle will describe the wines in terms of ‘the texture of dreams’ or some BS made up to not be read at all, and if read, to not mean anything. A so-so bottle of wine makes no commitments.
Lower East Side Triptych
We were on the corner of Essex Street and Delancey, across the street from the old Essex Street Retail Market. It was still open for business, though from the outside it looked half derelict and definitely dicey. I could see my aunt staring at the large sign on the side of the building; she was obviously trying to read it, to make sense of the words.
For All I Know
I write so I can remember what it feels like to be a nineteen-year-old girl in college. I write so I know the leaves are changing, who my friends are, what we did this week, and who I want to be now. I write so I remember, and so I never have to feel like a huge part of my life is missing like it is with Catarina.
Annie
“There’s something to be said,” Elizabeth begins, at which point I stop listening. She holds a glass of white wine at the stem and her chin points in her usual degree of superiority. I glance over at Nana, who mirrors the expression with white wine to match. I sip my diet coke. My sister makes me a little mad. Her mouth is overdrawn in caramel lipstick. Her highlights golden and fresh. She is beautiful and such a snob. These two will kill me this weekend. But she’s here now and I’m glad, or maybe relieved. I’m not going to overthink it. Herding us to the Chinese buffet for dinner was her idea, All-you-can-eat puts Nana in a good mood. Nana, however, smiles easy enough and her saggy face seems small under the white cap of feathery hair, but I know better. The room bustles around us like a train station with winding red silk lanterns dangling off the ceiling. People roam the buffet, eating long past stopping, until they almost explode, and the yellow fish in the tank are barely swimming, staring blandly at me. I haven’t spoken a word, and won’t, unless they make me.
Penny Candy
Helen grumbled when dispatch sent her on a fifteen-mile drive to pick up a couple in the suburbs. It was a half-hour before the end of her shift, November and already winter cold in Montreal. She wanted to soak in a bath, watch tv. But City Cab made it clear. You took calls or you looked for another job. After fifteen years, she still hated being told what to do. Just once, she’d like to tell dispatch to shove it.
Did You Know?
Did you know...
Luxury Rising
The supermarket cashier packed my purchases expertly.