Mickey stood on the side of the road, a car whizzed by. He could feel the tears coming. They would be in trouble, but that is not why the moist burning started behind his eyes. Mickey could hear Ben barking and whimpering. It was the whimpering that got the tears started. When Ben whimpered by the door, Evan toddled over and put one hand on the knob. Evan knew better and waited for someone to come to Ben’s rescue.

Today the adults were scarce. Mickey's father was sleeping off his scotch and they had not seen their mother since Evan was born. Their father’s sister was tall and had long brown hair that fell over her shoulders, swaying like grass in a field when the two boys wrapped their arms around her neck tackling her to the ground as she exited her car on her weekly stop to drop off groceries and make sure the boys had clean clothes. She smelled like flowers.

Mickey saw a break in the traffic, his child-brain assessed the width of the four lanes. Sun was in his eyes, he wiped away the sweat. A car veered close to his little body and screech a long jolting honk on the horn. Mickey’s heart raced with the sound pulsing in his temples. Ben barked. The only crosswalk on County road 32 was at the highway intersection. Mickey looked in the direction of the highway cloverleaf. The new school was there too. He was secretly thrilled to go to a school all day and the thought of walking there and back every day tasted like freedom in his mouth already. Right now, it looked a thousand miles away. A motorcycle tore past, sucking Mickey in its slipstream. Skidding on his elbows in the gravel, he wiped his face.

"Mickey. Don’t."

"Mickey turned to look at his brother".

"Evan. Stay there."

"Mickey, please, don’t.

"Evan, go back in."

"It’s my fault."

Tears ran down Evan’s face.

"No, it’s not. Just go back."

"Ben! Evan shrieked."

Mickey looked at Ben tilting his head to the right as if to ask a question on the other side of the four-lane. There was a break in traffic. He knew he could make it now, making it back, well… that was something for later. He wiped away sweat and dust from the gravel, perched to run. Timing. He could bring Ben back, lock the door, he and Evan would play with and their race track when his father stumbled out of his bedroom, he would never know.

"Mickey! Don’t leave me!"

One weird word you like

CACOPHONY

Why hadn’t she noticed it before? Another one. God. Steph tried to put the sound out of her mind and continued cleaning the dishes. She put the garbage outside the door. Another ambulance. She crossed the room to close a window and heard another on the street behind the house. Ceaseless. The cacophony was morose and disconcerting, mostly, though, it was nerve wracking. The numbers were climbing by the hour and did not stop. People dropping like flies. When she told her family on the other side of the ocean, they listened distractedly. Maybe it would not reach the US. Steph knew they said she was dramatic. Impossible to describe how everyone here in Milan was closed-up behind the huge building doors. No one dared to move unless it was an outright emergency. Those that went to the hospital were at the end of their rope. The hospitals were overflowing with the sick, no one wanted to go there. A last resort. If doctors deemed you needed a ventilator, you were most likely to make it off the machine by leaving the room feet first. God, another ambulance.

One word that (verb or gerund) that evokes a complex, troubling memory for you

TELLING THE TRUTH

She was going to have to live with it now. She had told the truth and now it was out. Why did she do it anyway? Liz really knew better and strictly followed the unwritten rule that women who speak their mind are problematic. Looking shyly askance, responding with an ambiguous non-committal euphemism, implying but not asking, followed by disclaiming statements were the preferred modes. Later, you tried your damnedest to get what you wanted without letting on as to what you were doing and said that whatever you had just quietly orchestrated was a coincidence out of nowhere or you had bought those shoes 2 years ago at the sales, or you had just stumbled, a moment ago, over that information about a writing or acting course on internet… She usually told lies. Little white lies, good faith inaccuracies, the careful calculation of details left out, small lies about what she wanted. She lied about things that were important to her, things that did not infringe on the lives of others except to inconvenience them with the fact that Liz had her desires and thoughts of her own. Yes, her desires inconvenienced others. This time she had told the truth though and that would destroy everything.

Song title

DELIRIOUS

The lights lit up the city like daytime. Traffic, pedestrians, restaurant- and theater-goers all intensified with the onset of darkness. It was exhilarating. Tessa wanted to spin around and around, arms outstretched, head back watching the lights fuse into lines of colors circling her. It would look delirious. It was not delirious, is was exhilarating, intoxicating, electric, arousing and enticing but Tessa wanted it to be delirious.

One adjective and noun combo

RUSHING WATER

The canal, at this point in the city, dropped over an uneven step in the grading and the rushing water cascaded in a full-bodied surge of indignation, turning angry, white and foamy. No doubt the water in the city was dirty, but it would push with force against the throat and chest, taking the bobbing head by surprise, pushing it under water where the roar was muted, like being in space. Water rushing over skin and pulse, the noise cancelling the city.

One question

WHAT’S FOR DINNER?

Tofu.

Nooo…

Tofu with-

Really. Are you kidding?

Tofu with-

With what?

What do you want it with?

Meatballs.

Ok. I made meatballs.

I wanted tofu.

One word or phrase evocative of your childhood

I’VE NEVER HEARD OF SUCH A THING; getting a job without a degree, leaving with nothing, not answering a question posed, travelling alone because you like your own company, saying you can ride a camel because, you say, you know how to ride a horse, so you will get the job, but you have never ridden on a horse and the camel will be terrifying once you get up there, they spit and bite, smell of excretement and, oh, we didn’t tell you but you need to ride without a saddle or reigns, just hang on to the camel’s neck, so you squeeze your legs until your they cramp and they say, you should look more relaxed, giving it all up and starting over, leaving the only place that has been home, but it hasn’t been home for a long time, you just didn’t realize it until a moment ago.