Hello Beautiful

by Ann Napolitano

“You don’t have to say anything, William,” Gus said. “We’re just gonna sit here and watch the kids play. We’ll be here next week too. If you want to say something, you can of course go ahead.” “God damn it,” William said, and looked around the edges of the park, as if searching for a way out, knowing there wasn’t one. “That’s right,” Washington said, and patted him on the knee.

She’d raced toward adulthood, because she’d always wanted to be in charge.

Julia could remember her pleasure, as a young girl, in making her sisters line up in height order and follow her around the house.

All the memories Sylvie wrote about her family focused

on either her father or her older sister, as the two cornerstones of her being.

She had the realization that she could respond to any stimulus however she wanted.