That's Not My Name

by Megan Lally

Maybe this progress is all in my head, and I’m still in that ditch. Or worse, maybe I am dead and this is hell. An endless purgatory of pain and solitude I’m doomed to wander until the end of time, looking for help that will never come.

We stick a pink candle in it, and she makes an outlandish wish. For world peace. For every illness to disappear. For nobody to ever get their heart broken. For a perfect life. And then we laugh, and she eats the cupcake, frosting first.