I wanted her to have the full, long life that every parent promises his or her child by the simple act of bringing that child into the world.
You shouldn't want to be like everyone else. Then you wouldn't be like you.
I took his razor from the shower floor, bits of his black hair still caked between the blades. I took his toothbrush from the sink counter and sucked on the bristles, trying to find the taste of him, but there was only the flavor of watery mint tooth...
English was such a dense, tight language. So many hard letters, like miniature walls. Not open with vowels the way Spanish was. Our throats open, our mouths open, our hearts open. In English, the sounds were closed. They thudded to the floor. And yet...
Because a place can do many things against you, and if its your home or if it was your home at one time, you still love it. That's how it works.
