Device
Waiting with my daughter for her dad, the concrete stoop burns my ass. Gabrielle plays with that crystal ball, her phone. “Do you have your bathing suit?” I ask. Dan is taking her to Russian River. “Make sure she brings a bathing suit.” My husband for twelve years, now we converse in emails and imperative verbs. Still I smooth my ex’s way, sitting on steps whose cracks he never caulked. There is so much to ask my immersed daughter. “Do you have your abacus?” She laughs, and I feel that sweet wash of charming, once more, a beloved in retreat.
Photo Credit: Sean McGee Hicks
There is tremendous detail in so few words and yet the veiled implications are the heart of the story.
A template for analysis of our “modern” age.
Nice one. Very, very nice. I love the “There is so much to ask … ,” and where it leads.