9781250816214

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SNOWSWEET10. Holiday displays and other celebrations are prohibited. Every day in Arcadia is pleasurable and special. Holidaysare therefore superfluous.11. It is forbidden in the strictest terms to give the passcode for the exterior Arcadia Gardens gate to anyone not asignatory to or in current violation of this Agreement. Transgression will result in immediate eviction.12. Suffering of any kind is and shall be considered contraband.13. No children shall be tolerated on or around the Property. This Agreement covers two (2) Residents only, fromsigning until termination by the Association. Any conception, whether brought to term or otherwise, shall void thiscontract in its entirety.
KEEPSAKEThe sun wriggles down between the green foothills that ring ArcadiaGardens like a wedding band. Time passes without pressing its claim.Oranges ripen on the tree, passion fruit on the vine, the wool on the backsof hand-raised, heirloom-breed communal sheep lengthens by the barestfraction of a centimeter, and Sophia sits down, alone at a laden table. Shewatches the golden juice glisten on the breast of a roast chicken and rolldown the rich mound of meat to pool on the clean china plate beneath.Her husband does not come home that night. Sophia accepts this as sheaccepts the presence of gravity. As she accepts everything else. His workoften takes him far afield and into the next day. A freelancer knows not themeaning of the words day shift or night shift! Perhaps Mrs. Lyon or Mrs.Minke know how to dislike their lives and scold their husbands. Sophia hasnever had the knack.Once it is full dark outside, she lights the candles and eats her sharealone. She swings her legs back and forth under the chair like a small girl.She will leave the larger portion for him, of course. It takes so little to fillher up. Sophia admires her table setting, its symmetry and balance. Roastchicken stuffed with pears and citron, buttered peas with mint and thyme,fresh bread rich and yellow with extra eggs, salted cucumbers, and a figand-datetrifle lavished in pink pomegranate cream. Sophia savors each bitemindfully, aware of its source and its aim, grateful for its weight in herbelly, its benefit to her body.She has not thought of Mr. Semengelof for hours, since before shebegan dressing the roast. Honest work banishes bad memories with suchefficiency!Sometimes, on these nights she spends alone, Sophia looks at herbountiful table and can almost see that something should be there that isn’t.Not her husband or her friends, but others, others she cannot quite name oreven imagine, shadows, phantoms of a future unlike the present, somethingsto fill these eight chairs round the dining set. That has always seemedstrange to her. Eight chairs, when it’s always been just the two of them.Sophia shakes her head. What has gotten into her today? She will askMrs. Lyon’s little ones to supper on the weekend, and they will need thechairs then. Goodness! How many times has she hosted their neighbors?
Page 2 and 3: Begin ReadingTable of ContentsAbout
Page 4 and 5: For Kris, Cylia, and SarahTurtles a
Page 6 and 7: WINESAPI was made for him.It is mor
Page 8 and 9: million detailed leaves she must po
Page 10 and 11: And then, for no reason whatsoever,
Page 12 and 13: and hot sands stretching away into
Page 14 and 15: EMPIREMrs. Lyon lounges grandly on
Page 16 and 17: know that look. We all know it. The
Page 18 and 19: “What did she do? The criminal, I
Page 20 and 21: “We’re all happy, Maestro,” M
Page 24 and 25: That’s all the chairs have ever b
Page 26 and 27: her stomach floods itself with acid
Page 28 and 29: CAMEOThe moon melts in through the
Page 30 and 31: of them, strolling the parks, check
Page 32 and 33: “No,” she gasps. “Never. I lo
Page 34 and 35: GALAThe night dazzles Sophia.Firefl
Page 36 and 37: of Bliss to Come unfolds onstage as
Page 38 and 39: sauce on the earth. But when Sophia
Page 40 and 41: BRAEBURNThe house lies dark on a da
Page 42 and 43: But Sophia didn’t. She still does
Page 44 and 45: BLACK TWIGSophia runs until her bre
Page 46 and 47: salesman? Is there something you la
Page 48 and 49: “NO,” she screams in his face,
Page 50 and 51: “I lied because he would have mad
Page 52 and 53: “Ask me,” he says in defeat.
Page 54 and 55: JUBILEESophia reassembles her house
Page 56 and 57: and the Lord God my Father breathed
Page 58 and 59: “Your Father is my Father too. He
Page 60 and 61: Eat it, you fucking pig, eat it.But
Page 62 and 63: ALSO BYCATHERYNNE M. VALENTEThe Lab
Page 64 and 65: Prix Imaginales. Valente has also b
Page 67 and 68: This is a work of fiction. All of t

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