Category: issue 9

One thing I learned about Bradley Zhao before he graduated was that sometimes, it was best to let him talk until he ran out of energy.

They had been digging a hole for quite some time. That was fine, though—what was childhood for if not endless digging?—and there was nothing more exciting than digging in the middle of the night with no adults around.

Another one of my brothers was killed today, which really spoiled my Friday afternoon. And I saw it, too, which made it even worse. He was sitting in the street, and of course they’re always waddling around in the street so it’s not like that was anything new. Usually my boys would fly out of the way in time, but this guy was beginning to lose his hearing. Too long spent around city traffic, I think. Taxi turned the corner and the rest of his brothers fled. He couldn’t hear.

There are few places as nightmarish and cold as hospital rooms whose corners are manned by solemn grim reapers waiting for loved ones to succumb to their grief and release the tethers binding them to this world.