Maybelline Boy
(D Magazine, July 2018)
The first time Johnny asked his mom if he could play with me, she said no.
Johnny was 8 years old. White. Splotched pink with sun, humiliation, unexplained rashes.
I was 10. Black. Small, but intimidating.
We were a perfect match.
Stranger on the Bridge
(D Magazine, July 2017)
“It sounds like the sea, doesn’t it? When you close your eyes? I love the sea.” The words float at me out of the dark. Feminine. Breathy.
I wonder if I’m imagining her voice over the rush of traffic on the LBJ Freeway below. But when I turn, there she is, a slender shape in the shadows of the bridge, a few feet from me. She’s taking off her heels, placing them neatly beside her. She tucks her skirt underneath her on the filthy concrete and sits with her arms wrapped around her knees.