Check out my short story Raccoon's Eyes on Litro Magazine's website.
This story went through four different drafts, and with input from several readers I'm happy with how it turned out. It follows a disoriented woman named Julia, who returns to her mother’s house for the first time in decades after a messy breakup. Already reeling from co-dependency and financial woes, Julia is overwhelmed by the reality of her mother’s dementia, which is aggravated by the stirring of nocturnal animals and painful memories.
Here's an exceprt below:
There was little chance other travelers would recognize her, but Julia avoided making eye contact with anyone on the flight from Berlin to New York. In a childish way, she acted as if keeping her face hidden below her baseball cap would protect her from confrontation or unwanted curiosity. It was her first return trip across the Atlantic. Her first time traveling solo. She hadn’t seen the New York skyline since before 9/11. On the flight to Raleigh she slept fitfully, distracted by the fantasy of Patrice following her from Europe to apologize. To say she’d retrieved all their photography business savings. But a more volatile reunion awaited Julia in Raleigh, and no amount of money could buy back the years apart from her mother.
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