When We Believed in Mermaids

by Barbara O'Neal

Mountain Dew, my favored way to mainline sugar and caffeine.

The only way I survived the losses that marked my early life was by learning to compartmentalize,

New Zealand has some of the highest melanoma rates in the world—

that, because then he might think it’s a challenge, and it isn’t. I just don’t want all the drama. He inclines his head, puzzling over me, then captures a lock

slide to my clavicle. All the nerves in my

A girl without a mother who protects her is a girl at the mercy of the world.

This is the family I wanted so desperately when I was a child, and I created it for myself.

“Love is not always destructive,” he says quietly, and slides a finger up my shin. “Sometimes love creates.”