"Gargle my shit ya curly haired freak" he says from the back seat.
Jesus, Wtf?!
Giggle, snorts the other one.
"Not you Mom" he clarifies.
Gigglegiggle, snort them both, slapping the shit out of each other...

"There is something miraculous in the way the years wash away your evidence, first you, then your friends and family, then the descendants who remember your face, until you aren’t even a memory, you’re only carbon, no greater than your atoms, and time will divide them as well." Anthony Marra, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

"There was a gurgling in her left breast, a creaking of bubbles from an ocean floor to which she felt she was inevitably being returned as if weighted and her strength to ascend despite the weight ebbing. She imagined going to the doctor, which would be the sensible thing to do until she would report 'I feel fleeting' and would be diagnosed as ridiculous. She could self-diagnose that much, after all." Etta

don't let me down

two naps, half a pint of ice cream, 4 left over Chinese dumplings, one article and half a novel later

A long time ago, when you were a wee thing, you learned something, some way to cope, something that, if you did it, would help you survive. It wasn’t the healthiest thing, it wasn’t gonna get you free, but it was gonna keep you alive. You learned it, at five or six, and it worked, it did help you survive. You carried it with you all your life, used it whenever you needed it. It got you out—out of your assbackwards town, away from an abuser, out of range of your mother’s un-love. Or whatever. It worked for you. You’re still here now partly because of this thing that you learned. The thing is, though, at some point you stopped needing it. At some point, you got far enough away, surrounded yourself with people who love you. You survived. And because you survived, you now had a shot at more than just staying alive. You had a shot now at getting free. But that thing that you learned when you were five was not then and is not now designed to help you be free. It is designed only to help you survive. And, in fact, it keeps you from being free. You need to figure out what this thing is and work your ass off to un-learn it. Because the things we learn to do to survive at all costs are not the things that will help us get free. Getting free is a whole different journey altogether. --Mia McKenzie