In the year following my mother’s passing, it felt as if her ghost draped afterimages heavy as a shearling coat over me. My body took on her limitations. I developed sciatica.
Heart pounding, I curled into a ball and let my arms absorb the blows aimed at my face until a security guard forced his way to me and dragged me out of the melee.
The jolt of cold left me and sleepiness returned… In the corner of the room one of the eighth graders, Vladimir, was threatening to spray a girl with a black water pistol.
My father had recently bought a satellite dish for this very reason. Hundreds of channels provided me with a spectral reality that would circumvent my curiosity for real reality.
Dr. Farber bounced a black, leather whip in her palm when she said the ladies in our classroom would find Taoist sexual philosophy especially interesting.