My story “Sunshine” has just gone live at Failbetter.com, which has a lovely layout and the hands-down best tagline of the literary web:
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. —Beckett
“Sunshine” is set in the Rio Grande Valley, circa about 2012, which was the last time I was down there. I’d probably have to write a different story if I used the Valley as a setting right now — borders conjure up different things now than they did just five years ago. I’m glad I caught it at the moment I did.
Taking care. It seems like such an innocuous statement. Take care, Glory had said before Tina hung up this morning. Tina is taking care of things for now, down in the Valley. Take care. Such an acquisitive phrase, as if care is something you have to reach out and grab.
Glory calls twice a day. Once, for the real report relayed by Tina, and once, when she talks to their mother. How is she eating? Sleeping? Is the weather nice? Glory seems to have forgotten the wind incessantly rustling the palm trees, the sky so pale it has stopped being blue. Mami is taking care, greedily, with both hands, because care, as it turns out, is something the world only stingily parcels out.
Katherine L. Hester 