The Wrong Family

by Tarryn Fisher

As far as Juno was concerned, when you got married you started a new family with the person of your choosing: leave and cleave. You had to fight it out together, figure it out as a team. And when the extended family tried to get involved, as they usually did, you were to tell them to mind their stinking business.

Juno laughed. She didn’t even mind that it was loud because everything seemed ludicrous: the bathroom so white a single pubic hair would mar it. Who wanted to live in a world so easily toppled?

Humans had a way of uprooting happiness. They found flaws in it, picked at it until the whole system unraveled.

Drunks seldom looked inward, and when they did, they usually ended up drinking more.

“Unfortunately, we aren’t the only ones in control of our story arcs. Outsiders have an influence, too.” “But we let the outsiders have an influence.” “Yes and no. When you’re an adult you can control who you allow into your life, but you can’t control how they’ll behave once they’re there.”

The denial mothers, that’s what she’d called them in her therapist years; women who dragged their sullen, druggie kids into the office for her to fix. They didn’t want anything to do with the actual therapy; there was a strong aversion to the truth.