Category: Fiction

It had been a frustrating few weeks at school. Individually, a number of white students had displayed their bias in the usual ways—not so funny “jokes,” being adamant about slavery and the Civil Rights Movement being “so long ago,” half-compliments, stereotyping me and my friends—and I wasn’t having it. I fully understand how it’s necessary to let a lot fly—I mean, if I stop to correct someone every time they show their lack of racial understanding, I’ll never get anything done—but enough was enough.

Cody gave his approval of his mother’s new boyfriend. “Before, you had no life,” he said. Diana had to agree with him.

Mateo invented a game where we try to guess the item being pawned by the appearance of the customer.

Murmur to me the song of our time.

The one from our dreams, the one that hurts:

Syd’s doctor had explained to her that a month or two after the procedure, her body would settle into a sleeker reality.

One day, Jen opened the closet to find that it had already been tidied and organized. Tina’s thin, spidery hand had even made labels for the plastic boxes she’d used to group together the family’s things. “Halloween” one box said, “Cal State Stuff” said another, “Photos,” “Kid Art.”