The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

by Jamie Ford

certain vintage). I wedged my scrawny fifteen-year-old self through the tube-topped crowd, all

Here at school they could swear, try cigarettes, lark about the forest instead of going to class, break bedtime as long as they weren’t keeping others awake. They could even swim without the burden of clothing, which had been unanimously voted for by the students, but in town they would behave in a manner that didn’t arouse concern or intervention.

“Hope is the most evil of all evils because it prolongs man’s torment.” As Dorothy nodded she felt a burning sensation in her arm that dissipated

families are like a school of sharks: it’s a miracle they don’t eat each other or simply swim their separate ways. Something compels them to stay together.

claimed that old sailors told him that on rare days like this, if you watch the sunset and don’t blink, just before the sun disappears below the horizon, you’ll see a green flash. He said masts and rigging will sometimes glow.”

“But that’s the point, isn’t it, to keep learning, to grow, to do more good than harm, to create compassion, to understand that every person you encounter is not there by coincidence? All of us play a role in another person’s life.”

Karma is more like a suitcase. You have to be unafraid to open it up and look at what’s inside, to unpack the things you don’t need. Karma is the climate of the past, which shapes how much leeway we have in the future.”