Greta

Super excited to have a story, “Greta,” up at The Fanzine. I wrote this piece for a collaboration between So Say We All and Thumbprint Gallery in San Diego, where a whole bunch of our writers were assigned visual art, given a word count (a page, or 300-500 words) (which is way beneath my ushe) and a deadline. We each wrote tiny pieces of fiction inspired by local artists, and displayed them together. Some of us “sold” our writing alongside art. Some of us didn’t sell anything. We had a reading, which was rad and powerful.

And then it occurred to me to shop this little story around. Thank you, Fanzine, for giving it a home.

We’ve always woken before the sun, she and I. Until the morning the bed is empty when I wake up, Greta already on the back porch in her underwear. I watch her from the kitchen door, the way her arms flex to reach idly for her coffee. From here she looks fine.

This story was inspired by artwork by Lauren Siry. And I borrowed a character from my writing partner’s story, “The Contortionist,” by Ryan Bradford, one of my favorite short stories, which appeared in New Dead Families. Greta came to me already named. Thank you Ryan (sorry I didn’t have her do any spine popping tricks).