Two Sisters at the Starbucks on Delancey
︎︎︎ Joshua Vigil
︎ Nov 26, 2024
Helen and I were laughing. Tears slid down her cheeks! I told her I didn’t want my story to make her so sad anymore. A flash of anger now to her face. Yes, the story. The story about how I was abandoning her for a crotchety elf who promised to whisk me to London. But Ren has yellow skin, she was saying now. Don’t you see? Those alcoholic cheeks? His liver will explode any day now! I told her he’d need someone to nurse him back to perfect health. Or to pat away the crinkles to his deathbed. You did always like them a little ill, she said. There’s a name for that, you know? Munchausen by Proxy. I took a hard suck from my caramel ribbon frappe and Helen continued. She said, It doesn’t bother you that he’s an elf? I can’t imagine what your babies will look like. They don’t recommend you procreate with elves. I told her I was in love and that, besides, I was barren. Had she forgotten we both were? Yes, Helen said, I had forgotten, completely.
Joshua Vigil is a writer and educator living in the Pioneer Valley. His writing has appeared in Hobart, Joyland, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. His chapbook Shapeshifter is out now from Bottlecap Press.