“I have cancer.”
It was so natural, the way my dad said it, that I almost didn’t think anything of it at first. We’d just left Aunt Jade’s house and were sitting in his ’89 Chevy Caprice next to the drug store on Main Street while we waited for the train to pass by. The tracks run through the middle of downtown Acworth, wind past abandoned industrial buildings to the north, up and over the interstate, and across Lake Allatoona to chug through the mountains of North Georgia and beyond. I was counting the train cars and was at 28 when he said it.
“I have cancer,” he said again.
And it was like, all in that moment, I could tell that he had cancer, could feel it ruminating in his belly, filling his insides, and showing itself in the yellow of his eyes. I grabbed the door handle and held onto it for dear life, wishing instead I would reach out to where my dad’s hand rested on the gear shift and curl my fingers around his wrist so I could feel the gentle, reassuring pulse of blood flowing through his veins. I didn’t.
– “Counting”
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Tag: excerpt
An Excerpt from First Year
When I get outside, I sit on the bench outside my dorm only briefly until I see Logan’s familiar figure approaching, his hands stuffed in his pockets. A few girls from my hall pass by as he approaches, and I notice that they give him more than a few appreciative glances.
I have to admit, Logan Hawkins is pretty cute. He has dark brown hair that sweeps across his forehead and stretches briefly down the back of his neck. He’s tall and, though not beefy, definitely has muscles. I smile when I remember the days in junior high when he’d had long hair and braces. The girls on my hall might not have given him such leering looks if they’d known him back then.
“Hey, Em.”
My heart skips a beat at the nickname—that’s what Nate calls me. I brush the feeling aside.
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