My neighbor tells me about the fitness app that’s helped her lose nine pounds and her real estate showings and how much French wine Caroline drank at the board meeting. I tell her about my dad’s lymphoma and my mom’s heart failure and how Shannon is the head nurse at the psychiatric hospital where my brother is being kept, because he was found lying in the road, saying he’s the devil. “Man,” she says, “your family has a lot of problems.” I nod and feel oddly seen, as the big yellow bus unfurls its stop sign and unloads our children.
Elena de la Garza is an emerging writer and psychologist who lives in Central New York, surrounded by trees, dogs, and loved ones.