I woke at three in the morning and I could feel her out there, April, in the street in front of Yukiko’s house. I pulled back the curtain and there she was, sitting on the curb under a street light, a plastic bag next to her with something leafy sticking out of the top, a pineapple I think. She was hunched over her knees and staring at me like she could see me, though that was impossible. The lights were off and I was behind the curtain. But I’d swear she was looking right at me. Maybe it was a dream. Because if it was real and she was actually there, why didn’t I go out there and smash her face in? That’s the one idea that gave me some hope these days, the possibility of finding April and making her pay for what she did to Pill. But everything is different at three a.m., and when I saw her last night I felt scared, like she was this monster I would never be able to get rid of. She would stay hidden from the police and everyone else but she would keep showing up in our lives. Pill...
reflections and whimsies on literary fiction