The Inexplicable Logic of My Life

by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Words exist only in theory. And then one ordinary day you run into a word that only exists in theory and meet it face to face. And then that word becomes someone you know.

there are a lot of other words you meet when you run into the word funeral. You meet all Funeral’s friends: Pallbearer, Casket, Undertaker, Cemetery, Headstone.

I guess there were some women who just knew how to make tortillas, who liked making them, who fed people with their art. I guess there were people walking around in the world who understood how to comfort people.

I knew why people were afraid of the future. Because the future wasn’t going to look like the past. That was really scary.

Maybe that’s what life was. You zigged and you zagged and zigged and zagged some more.

I wondered if that’s what death sounded like. Like a snowflake falling on the ground.