Into the Forest and all the Way Through

by Cynthia Pelayo

Gas stations during road trips are in between places, they are the Bermuda Triangles of our roads, points of fatigue, and cool air, and yellow headlights gasoline pumps, windshields caked in flying insects, and oil stains.

Everything was left behind, including that son. His own father abandoned him just two years later, fleeing the country, deserting the memory of a wife who worked when all of us were sleeping, and who disintegrated into the glorious golden morning rays when all of our eyes opened

Mom and dad said not to speak or the demons and vampires inhabiting us would break through our skin, and take over the smoke that went into mom and dad’s mouth.

what good is checking on your neighbors if you are unwilling to save them?

And when police officers finally approached the man suspected in your murder, in the murder of Elizabeth, and Tammy and Mary, and Rosario, and many more—he killed himself, because that is what cowards do.