Find Layla

by Meg Elison

It didn’t happen all at once. It didn’t go from sitcom mom and pancakes to the way it is now. Little by little, things fell apart. The door broke, and Mom said we couldn’t let maintenance in until the kitchen was cleaned up. But then the fridge went bad and the kitchen went with it. Then the bathroom sink, which meant the carpet got flooded, which meant the newspapers and the mold and the stink. Little things caused big things, and picking up the living room just didn’t matter to anyone.

A house like this doesn’t happen by accident, but as a series of contributing events. Like the forming of an ecosystem.