My Sister Humiliated Me at the Ball Until I Let the Countdown Speak for Me

ballroom three blocks back. A bus moved through an intersection. Two people walked a dog. A light turned green and then red again with the patient indifference of civic infrastructure.

I checked my watch out of habit. The countdown had long since resolved, replaced by the ordinary time of an ordinary night. I let my sleeve fall back over it.

Power, I continue reading …