Brother & Sister Enter the Forest by Richard Mirabella

Author:Richard Mirabella
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Catapult
Published: 2023-01-27T00:00:00+00:00

In the secrecy of her workroom, Willa sculpted a miniature of the new Justin with polymer clay and baked him in the oven like a gingerbread man. She gave him black jeans and all. A little beard. Considered putting a knife in his hand. It took a lot of mixing to find the right color brown for the beard. She thought of the beard as black, but of course it wasn’t. She placed the magnifier in front of her eyes and tickled the color onto the face of the small Justin figure with the thinnest brush she owned. He couldn’t know she was doing this. If he did find out, she would tell the truth. It hadn’t been a conscious choice, and she didn’t have plans for him. She hadn’t built a box or a stage for him. After a time, she laid him on the desk to dry.

All of the scenes she’d created over the years climbed the walls on all sides of her. She kept them, though nothing pleased her. They pissed her off or embarrassed her. The miniature evergreens made her happy; they were the first miniatures she ever owned. Bought or stolen, she didn’t remember. They made her happy because she had nothing to do with their creation. She should hate them, as they’d caused an obsession, a desire to shrink the world and make it manageable. Why did she think she should create Justin? As if you could make something small and understand it better.

Later, she drove to Luke’s without calling. She often forgot to call him or text him and check in. Now that Justin lived with her, Luke didn’t come over the way he used to, and she’d been okay without him, but here she was driving there and parking the car, going to the door. When he answered, she realized she’d missed him or missed some part of him. “Tell me you don’t want to see me anymore,” Luke said, and she put her arms around him.

“I’m used to you now,” she said. “I don’t want you to go away.”

“But you can go away all you want, I guess.”

He hadn’t said it, but he was in love with her. She sensed it the same way you sensed that someone hated you. She ran her hands over his neck and shoulders and allowed herself to admire the strength of them. She could love him too. He wouldn’t mind if it took a while. He would help her.

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