Creation Lake

by Rachel Kushner

I enjoyed the way the sun emptied my thoughts and flattened my feelings to a lizard-like drip of the minutes as they passed. I had come to suspect that the woman in Marseille, the tannest of the tanners at the private swim club, who tanned even during a windstorm, had been onto something. Submitting to the sun and letting it cook my thoughts was soothing.