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ISSN: 1941-4137 |
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Volume Two Issue Three |
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The Turning A day before mother dies she calls out father's name — the long version, Maximilian. It comes out like a question as if she is asking whether or not he will embrace her after the years she has been alone trying to come into her own name, Flora — a calla lily, gracious but still mournful. Or after all the times she screamed at him and called him Idiot, even in front of the neighbors, the three syllables that would ring through our tiny apartment, putting us on alert: mother is depressed. Towards the end when she watched TV she wanted me to fix the characters' marital problems, her way perhaps of asking forgiveness. She would turn to me especially during the screaming and beg: Please, please, you have to help them. |
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