We used the trashcans to hop on the roof of the garage. There wasn’t much to see up there, and it didn’t make the neighborhood look any different. Old, narrow houses stood too close to each other like a huddled crowd of sick people. The windows made me think of sad eyes. There were never any dogs or children in the small cramped yards. But I no longer thought someone could get stuck here, that a street like this could keep you trapped in one place. Colleen even called us birds, and I pictured us as two tiny ones side by side, wings fluttering, when I saw a flock of black birds take off against the storm clouds.
The Easy One
