American Chordata: Magazine of New Writing Issue One, Spring 2015 | Page 77

59 • FI CTION

triangular skirt, her head turned to the side to show her red ponytail; I was the shorter girl with curly brown hair holding the leash
pulled out to the side; and Marky looked as if he’d been, for once
in his life, to the dog grooming parlor. We are not that family
anymore.
Molly says we are, too, that family. She says the night my father
climbed through the window he was trying to get back to us and
he hasn’t moved into an apartment like Carolyn Cranmore’s father.
I like Molly, but her father hasn’t changed and he’s on the faculty
and he stays home every night. Besides, I told her, when my father
climbed through the window he was not glad to see Marky or me.
He was not even ashamed. I remember it perfectly. He said a few
Lo u i s F r a t i n o

Mom and Dad in Herring Bay, 2014