xcpaige
By the time I was 2,000 miles away from home, the singed flesh had already crusted over. He traced the raised burns with his fingertips and laughed at my story about how I had managed to confuse my thigh for a wrinkle. "What were you doing ironing a duvet cover in your underwear anyway?" I just wanted some crisp cotton for our clumsy reunion. I didn't mean to get hurt along the way.
White debris swells in soft bellies, pinning sea turtles to the surface of the ocean. Poor scattered shell-backed fishing buoys bobbing lonely on the salt.
Friday night you could say I was thirsty, but I didn't drink what hydrated me. Saturday morning hurt my eyes so that's why I took a walk through my graveyard. I discovered founders buried there and collected the chipped candle wax scattered in the dirt. I brushed the dirt from their tombstones and traced my fingers over the mossy engravings. Those granite slabs are beautiful, but Eleazar Wheelock sounded like a dick and I was still hungover.
I've never totally understood the word integrity, but whenever I hear it used I just think - "morally upright." And then I think of my father. When he used to tell me to "do the right thing" and "make good choices" I would roll my eyes and say yeahyeahsure before skipping out the door. He's always been old fashioned, but now he's just old. And that's why I listen hard these days. I'm young, I'm stupid, I'm scared, but I'm doing the best I can to make him proud before he goes.