Image courtesy of The Public Domain Archive
Catching the Glow
When Wendy found her youthful glow, it was bouncing down Main Street. She ran to catch up with it, but it ricocheted off the wall of the organic grocery store. She reached out to catch it in her hands, but it slid off her fingers. She shouted at a young man, "Catch my glow before it gets away." He reminded her of her old high school boyfriend, oblivious to everything around him. "What did you say, Lady?" he shouted. Her glow started bouncing more rapidly down the block, and now he was in her way. "Run after it!" she screamed. "Run after what," he said sarcastically, and now as the glow bounced out of sight, she remembered why she didn't really like her old boyfriend very much.
What Was and Wasn't Glowing
Iris drank a glass of milk and was glowing. It wasn't really milk; it was oat milk. And it's possible that it was the oat milk that was glowing and not her. It was also possible that she was making the whole thing up. Her mother had once told her not to drink "that fake milk shit." "A woman should glow like quinine," her mother said. But her mother wasn't really her mother; she was her auntie. And her auntie often glowed from the brand of whiskey she drank, but her glow was red. And sometimes, her auntie glowed as if lit from within, but most of the time, the house was dark and it was hard to see if anyone was really home. Which is why Iris rarely went home and when she did, she brought oat milk and a flashlight.
Real Stars
His dying young patient had a cacti collection and showed him photos of her favorites, the ones with white spines and long, white hair. There was nothing else he could do for her. Her face had become flat, and like a diseased cactus, she was losing her thorny white tips right in front of his eyes. He watched the tips fall, sitting on her hospital bed, staring into her parched looking eyes. She pointed over to the plate of glittery cannabis cookies. "Those are real stars," she said. "Have one." The doctor felt flat and old, as if he were her great grandfather and they were standing in a vast desert, looking at the dark sky. The doctor ate the star for his patient, and suddenly she was asleep and glowing.
