Patricia Wants to Cuddle

by Samantha Allen

This is not where she pictured herself at this point in life, but then again, she had always had trouble even envisioning being alive past thirty. All the possibilities she had seen in her own circles—getting married, getting divorced, raising kids, aspirational suburban grilling—each of them felt tragic in their own right, all equally dead ends. Something inside of her had always felt like it was decaying, doomed, not long for this world. But telling that to anyone would make her feel crazy.

Abortions, Vanessa has found, are a lot like affairs: lots of women have them and lots of women judge you for having them, and often those two groups of women are the same.

How strange eyes are that they can capture this scene. Two squishy little orbs of nerves and jelly: indelible things that alter all the rest of you.