Flores and Miss Paula: A Novel

by Melissa Rivero

“He didn’t even like Dirty Dancing. If he doesn’t know a good movie, no way can he be my man.”

But when you have one child, there is the danger of putting everything into that only. All of your sadness and fears. Everything you hoped to be one day, and all the things you hoped to end—to not pass on—just to give that child the opportunity to be free of generations of burdens. Maybe this happens with every child, no matter how many children you may have, but with an only, it feels like you have just that one chance to get it right. And so you hope for the impossible—that with this singular opportunity to parent, you can somehow right all the wrongs.