We Are All the Same in the Dark

by Julia Heaberlin

Texas countertop proved the earth was flat, and that Donald Trump’s wall was thought up secretly to protect us from falling off.

WTF

Usually in Texas mug shots, the crown comes off, whether it sparkles or says Make America Great Again. But

Except that’s how Maggie always texts, three pops in a row. Her fingers and mind, never quite catching up to each other.

So what if you’re a little fucked up?—

Don’t ever slow down for nobody. If you’re going to try to manipulate somebody like me, do a good job of it. Didn’t your daddy teach you that?”

The avengers outside are the worst kind, the ones in silver cross necklaces, baseball caps, and Life is Good T-shirts. The ones who stay up until midnight to build their first-graders’ Alamo projects out of sugar cubes, cancel a Thanksgiving cruise to bring Grandma some turkey in the hospital, spend a full paycheck on ACL surgery for the family dog. Their love for God and family is just as manic as their hate.

I’d think, what is the point of being good, of trying, if God has already decided if I am going to heaven or hell? I’d spend an hour playing a game with a banana, going back and forth about whether to take a bite, and when I finally did, I’d wonder if God could see the endgame with that banana. That was an hour wasted, Angel. I should have been eating a bag of chips or dancing in the rain. I don’t believe in predestination. I believe we choose whether to press the trigger. But so help me, for some reason, I believe the universe pulled us together for a reason.