All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

by Bryn Greenwood

I don’t know why I wasn’t afraid. Maybe because he was so big. Bigger than everyone who made me feel small.

Words were complicated and you had to open your mouth.

After Liam and Butch took Kellen away, I thought about how he left spaces for me when he talked. If I saw him again, I decided I might put words in those spaces.

Usually I hated his stale coffee breath, but that night it was familiar and comforting.

I could have told him there was no sense in rushing toward being dead. It would find you soon enough, and before it did there were pleasures to make your heart hurt less.

Either God was stupid or Charlotte was confused, because my temple was clearly designed for that.