Annie Agnone is an MFA candidate in creative writing at The University of Alabama. She is a recent recipient of a National Geographic Young Explorers Grant to work on a nonfiction book about night's place in modern American culture. She likes cockroaches, swimming, and letting stray dogs into her car. She lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, with her partner, two not-stray dogs, and, sometimes, cockroaches.
A flash-fire covered the horizon all around and behind her, and my mother glowed genuine blue. I saw her skeleton, or maybe her white-hot soul. Something flew up and around our heads.