Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin

Author:Alexis Schaitkin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Celadon Books

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It must have been a week later that Peter and I finally got around to putting away everything from Iris’s party, leftover paper and paints and glitter and glue. I found the three glass butterflies amid the mess and ran them up to Iris’s room, set them atop her dresser with her other precious things, her ballerina music box and her kaleidoscope and the old-fashioned hand mirror in which she liked to admire herself. When I got downstairs, Peter was sitting at the kitchen table.

‘What are those?’ I asked.

‘Photos from Iris’s party. Found them with everything.’ He shrugged and continued flipping through them. ‘Too bad,’ he said. ‘You must have moved.’ He set the stack down and got up to put away the rest of the craft supplies.

I took the pile in my hands. The picture on top was the family portrait we had taken in front of the yellow hibiscus. Iris had worked her face into the romantic gaze she loved to affect, her hands tucked behind her, puffing out her dress. Peter grinned, one hand on top of Iris’s head, the other around my waist. The yellow blossoms, Peter, Iris, all of it was sharp and clear. Only my image was blurred. A transparent double drew away from the primary form, as if, at the moment the photograph was taken, I had darted away. Peter’s hand around my waist seemed to grasp an apparition. I remembered posing for the photograph, standing with Peter and Iris, the feeling of his hand around my waist. I was certain that when it was taken, I hadn’t moved. I had been standing perfectly still.

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