Rumpus Original Fiction: The Next Unicorn
My job was to help people suspend disbelief.
...moreMy job was to help people suspend disbelief.
...moreIt’d been a while since I’d spent time in a body.
...moreThe ground trembles, setting his flesh and bones vibrating.
...moreShe wanted more, but couldn’t fathom releasing what she already had.
...moreEverything old felt far away; everything new felt exhilarating.
...moreTo be a woman in this world is to be adopted by other women.
...moreBefore they were married, they met in a photograph.
...moreIt was strange what the nudity did to us—what the nakedness undid.
...moreThat was when she realized: the ticking was coming from inside herself.
...moreThe hit below the belt worked. A jab like that was the quickest way to protect one’s denial.
...moreA block away from my house, Reina killed herself.
...moreBut in that same instant, as she turned, his smile froze.
...moreThere is pleasure in his eyes that is not just good acting.
...moreI searched in its beady eyes and tried to find a motherly warmth.
...moreHe barks at Coco. Coco barks back.
...moreI’d love to prove that I can sell windows.
...more“You’re a bomb,” Biswell says to Hope.
...moreWe met in a dorm hallway, half past midnight.
...moreTurn the corner, let the darkness swallow you, and you’re in the stacks.
...moreIt was a Friday morning at 9:34 a.m. when the Rapture occurred.
...moreWhat was I now? A witness? A victim? A mother? A suspect?
...moreThis is what happens when I listen. I react.
...moreThere is an irony that sometimes rings Mona like a bell.
...moreShe can really throw herself into a stoning.
...moreMy favorite was usually the smallest, the most alive.
...moreIt felt like the sun beating down on closed eyelids.
...moreI laugh. My laugh, this thing that sounds better on somebody else.
...moreCould scars be daughters? The hands don’t understand why I am asking this.
...moreIf this were the end, May needed to see.
...moreI tell Kurinda I’d lie flat on the floor under a pile of jackets.
...more