Belly Ripley and the Weirdest Parole Terms Ever

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We’ve all been there. You go to Harvard, then to law school in Colorado. You own property in central Texas.

You get caught trafficking drugs, and the court makes you study creative writing in El Paso as part of your parole. You meet Dagoberto Gilb there and spend a lot of time drinking whiskey and riding around in an El Camino with him.

Dagoberto Gilb ends up writing about it for ZYZZYVA years later.

You know—the usual.

Lauren O'Neal is an MFA student at San Francisco State University. Her writing has appeared in publications like Slate, The New Inquiry, and The Hairpin. You can follow her on Twitter at @laureneoneal. More from this author →