An Object in Orbit (part 8)
serial fiction, wherein we question the nature of absence
You are reading part 8 of the 9-part serial story An Object in Orbit. Go here to start at the beginning.
This is the body on the beach. This is the body behind the townhouses. This is the body the body the body. These are the bodies on the highway beneath the bus that left too soon, beneath the car that traveled too high, beneath the sky so full of holes. These are the mothers who left, not of their own accord. These are the fathers who left. These are the brothers and the sisters. These are the mothers fathers brothers sisters watching over us.
Are they orbiting? Are they floating? How do they watch over us? How do they manage to waylay us when we rush headlong toward destruction?
Or is it only the mothers who are watching? Will they come back down? Will they find a hole in the atmosphere? Will they find a way to us?
Stay tuned for the final installment.
Thank you for reading my author newsletter. “An Object in Orbit” originally appeared in Boulevard in 2019.