The Housewarming

by Kristin Offiler

Sunburns always reminded her of the deliberate carelessness of being young and “forgetting” the tube of sunscreen so she could get a little color.

She’d crossed some kind of invisible threshold after having her daughter, everything from her body to her mind broken apart and reassembled into someone strange and unfamiliar.

She dabbed the ruined makeup away with a washcloth and started over, blending and powdering until she was back to normal, her moment of vulnerability covered up.

if you have your integrity, you have everything you need.”

“You’re both strong-willed when you feel passionate about something. Sometimes that’s an explosive combination.

Time was slippery. Her mother loved to say that it took and took and took and never gave anything back.

Indeed.