I believe you can prove everyone wrong, too, Victoria. Your behavior is a choice; it isn’t who you are.

Now, as an adult, my hopes for the future were simple: I wanted to be alone, and to be surrounded by flowers. It seemed, finally, that I might get exactly what I wanted.

She was perfect. I knew this the moment she emerged from my body, white and wet and wailing. Beyond the requisite ten fingers and ten toes, the beating heart, the lungs inhaling and exhaling oxygen,...

I would keep her, and raise her, and love her, even if she had to teach me how to do it.

Over time, we would learn each other, and I would learn to love her like a mother loves a daughter, imperfectly and without roots.

Her eyes were open, taking in my tired face… Her face twitched into what looked like a squinty smile, and in her wordless expression I saw gratitude, and relief, and trust. I wanted, desperately, not...

For eight years I dreamed of fire. Trees ignited as I passed them; oceansburned. The sugary smoke settled in my hair as I slept, the scent like a cloud left on my pillow as I...

This time, there was no escape, I could not turn away, could not leave without accepting what I had done. There was only one way to the other side, and that was through the pain.

Lui la abbracciò stretta, e quando lei cominciò a tremare, per il freddo o il pianto o entrambi, la avvolse nella coperta e la strinse a sè ancora di più. Per la prima volta, rimpianse...

Hyacinth. Please forgive me.

Anyone can grow into something beautiful.