Meg Pokrass
MOM AND THE OTTERS

There was the time Dad scooted home with a bunch of supermarket flowers, handed Mom what he had to offer, flashed us his new beard, and we chanted Beard! Beard! Beard! like we were in a TV show about a family—and Mom, with her evaporated smile, said Fine, okay, let’s head to the river and look for those otters, took him by the wrist, and we sillies trailed along behind them, smiling to see the two of them walking in unison, watching her hair that no longer bounced or shone, wanting to see it the way Dad saw it, how it whispered around her ears because he had long been away, and he was back, and now she was coaxing him like an animal, saying I deserve to see these damn otters if they really exist, and he smiled and kissed her hair, or maybe he smiled at us while we were kissing her hair, or maybe they were no longer walking next to each other. All I can remember from that time are the otters, how they finally swam over to greet her, how they let us know they were not a dream.

Meg Pokrass has appeared in the Wigleaf Top 50 2022, The Best Small Fictions 2023, Electric Literature, McSweeney’s, Washington Square Review, Split Lip, storySouth, Passages North, and elsewhere. Her new collection, The First Law of Holes: New and Selected Stories by Meg Pokrass, is forthcoming from Dzanc Books in late 2024. She is the Founding Editor of Best Microfiction.

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