Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance

by Alison Espach

I had never seen anybody wink before in real life, except Grandpa, but Grandpa only ever winked at our cat, the one we called Doctor, and only in those few months before Grandpa died, and Grandpa winking at Doctor was even more confusing than Billy winking at you, because it made me think that Doctor knew something about Grandpa’s looming death, that maybe Doctor was Death, and for years, I was too spooked to look Doctor in the eye, as if she would take me, too.