We Can Never Leave This Place

by Eric LaRocca

AS I DRIFTED into the nursery filled with somber-faced guests dressed in expensive-looking black, I couldn’t help but feel like a small island surrounded by dark water blooming with poison.

“If you hold on to a rope long enough, it’ll pull you with it,” I told him. “I’ve been holding on to one my whole life.”

“What are you afraid of?” he asked. “Letting go, or being left with nothing to hold?”