• Growing Apart — in short

    One day, you learn that life is just going to have a lot of inevitable turns. Then, it’ll take another day for you to accept that reality. Yet, another day comes when you realize that, after all, you’re as unprepared as you were before any of those turns happened, to anchor yourself. To expect, to anticipate such changes — which, if one is lucky, may not happen at all — is not the same as walking by them, through them despite the warning. Feeling the shift with every conversation, with every heartbeat, every memory…quietly fading away. You might not always notice when you’re growing apart from someone, but when you…

  • Broken Bonds

    I parked my car by the blue line. The yellow line meant no parking, so I knew better to keep away. I was looking forward to seeing Aunt Marsala for the first time in forever. Before jumping out of the car, I double-checked that all the windows were up. Beep Beep. I locked the car. Aunt Marsala’s neighborhood looked dilapidated as ever. She had been a victim of life circumstances for far too long. Once at the top of her doorsteps, I rang the bell and waited outside. Fiddling with my keys, rocking back and forth on my heels, moving my head from side to side in a watchful way……