When I have something important to say, when the time comes to say it, I either A.) realize that it\u2019s not important or B.) convince myself that it isn\u2019t. Tonight, I decide this matter matters enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou shouldn\u2019t have left the kettle on for so long,\u201d I say looking over the charred base. I turn the burner on for tea and walk out to the living room.<\/p>\n
The sun is setting, so half the room is dark. A burnt odor lingers in the recesses of the remaining light. J is sprawled out across the crux of the sectional, the best place to sit. She always takes that spot, leaving me on the short end without a place for my legs.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you see tomorrow\u2019s weather?\u201d she says. \u201cMy phone doesn\u2019t show rain, but it probably will.\u201d<\/p>\n
A mountain of pillows are piled up on the sofa around her. She stacks the last remaining throw and sinks into the valley of her making. I think about renovating. I think about knocking out walls. I think about open floor plans and demolition and room for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey Photoshop out the green blob on the radar to make people happy,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kettle,\u201d I say as it starts to scream.<\/p>\n
She takes out her phone and sets it down. She brings up her tablet and sets it aside. She turns up the TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year it rains on my birthday,\u201d she says a little louder.<\/p>\n
The kettle, I think.<\/p>\n
The meteorologist comes on. I hope he says it\u2019s going to rain. I hope he says every nearby river and lake is going to flood, submerging the city under water. I sit down and curl my legs into my chest. I wait for him to say something as smoke pours into the room around us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I have something important to say, when the time comes to say it, I either A.) realize that it\u2019s not important or B.) convince myself that it isn\u2019t. Tonight, I decide this matter matters enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":17115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","writer-andrew-ciaccio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17113"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17154,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17113\/revisions\/17154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}