Whisper Network

by Chandler Baker

still clung to the notion that someone could be a “good person” despite their actions, as though actions weren’t the very indicator of one’s person.

The fog of self-righteousness could be a powerful drug.

the social awkwardness complicated by prettiness. No one expected those two attributes to go together and that created a problem for people,

Grace would like to outsource the whole thing—what was that called again? Oh, right, “formula”—but she just knew that the second she did, Emma Kate would develop childhood diabetes or terrible allergies and the doctor would turn to Grace and ask: Were you breastfeeding? And Liam would look at her all: I support your decision while silently wishing he’d had a baby with somebody else.

And her body remembered this also by the pearly riverbeds that crawled along her sides and out from her belly button like a sun. It remembered.

Abigail was his child, too. Equal parts. Though she did feel that, in the event of a tiebreaker, surely Abigail was just a tiny bit more hers, what with the gestating inside of her for nine months and what have you. Derek certainly didn’t have a flabby kangaroo pouch underneath his belly button. Still, in a perfect world, she ought to be able to invite him along in her parental fury.

For our children, we chased the gold standard of suburban contentment set by our own stay-at-home mothers, while simultaneously stepping into the shoes of our breadwinning fathers.

The power differential loomed massive.

Grace’s heart couldn’t decide what rhythm it wanted to beat in.

instantly felt her heart grow teeth.