“M’ijo, we need to talk.”
Javy’s head dropped under the shadow of the front porch. He could see the dark living room and his bedroom’s window open, the summer breeze pushing back the curtains. Coming home, he thought he would be alone, everyone else out to watch a movie. He palmed his deck until the skateboard rested like a small piece of driftwood next to his hip. “A’ight,” he replied.
“Is it true? What she said? The photo? All of that?” his father asked.
“Yeah, but I got…”
“What you got is in the here and now,” his father interrupted. “What you got, m’ijo, is something more important here than what’s out there.”
“Inertia” now available in Twisted Vine, Fall 2017/Spring 2018.