Small Spiral Notebook - Vol.3 Issue 2 - (Page 21)

Warning : session_start : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning : session_start : Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent output started at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning : Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by output started at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 10 SARAH GERKENSMEYER 21 WONDER WOMAN GREW UP IN NEBRASKA by SARAH GERKENSMEYER Wonder Woman rides shotgun. She turns the radio up and rolls the window down, barely smiling as the wind whips at her and makes her hair go crazy wild. This is one of her most favorite things of all. Lisa leans over Wonder Woman’s shoulder, her chest pressed into the back of the passenger-side front seat. “Check my breath,” she says. She pushes her face close to Wonder Woman’s and opens her mouth. She exhales. Her soft, corn-colored hair slides across Wonder Woman’s cheek. “Gross,” Wonder Woman says, waving her hand lazily. “No,” Lisa insists, hovering. “Just check it.” Another exhale. Wonder Woman smells green mint, from the gum that they all chew. And something else. Something empty-smelling and pleasant that she can’t identify. “You’re fine,” she says, reaching through Lisa’s hair and placing her palm in the middle of her forehead, giving a gentle yet solid shove. Jane, who is driving, laughs. Lisa sinks into the darkness of the backseat and giggles. All three of them laugh, at nothing. Wonder Woman doesn’t recognize the intimacy of such moments— getting close enough to check Lisa’s breath or absently combing her thin fingers through Jane’s hair. When the three of them are pressed tight together on her firm childhood bed, Wonder Woman does not become sentimental. Instead, she looks for vague feelings of intimacy elsewhere, in strange places like an airport bar. She won’t recognize the closeness that the three of them share until years later, long after they have lost touch. Chopping vegetables for a soup late one winter afternoon in her kitchen, it will hit her. A heavy sadness, guilt in her gut. Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in Unknown on line 0 Warning : Unknown : Failed to write session data files . Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct /var/lib/php/session in Unknown on line 0

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Small Spiral Notebook - Vol.3 Issue 2

Table of Contents
Roundabout by Mia Alvar
Caretaking by Besty Aaron
Wonder Woman Grew Up in Nebraska by Sarah Gerkensmeyer
Nightshade - an Excerpt by Susan Y. Chi
Dumpster Tuesday by Scott Snyder
Last Resort by Nova Ren Suma
Five-and-Dime Valentine by Felicia Luna Lemus
The New Children by Kira Henehan
Get Away, Little Man by Brian Joseph Hurley

Small Spiral Notebook - Vol.3 Issue 2

https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/NXTbook/smallspiralv3i2
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com