She stopped at a passage
of a page she'd been reading.
You know what aphelion is?
I looked out at the coal wharf
over the way. No idea, I said,
thinking maybe a villain of
some kind. She drew her
finger across the page.
Means the furthest point
in a planet's...she hesitated,
in a planet's orbit from
the sun, she said, turning
to gaze at me. What's the
book? I asked, looking away
from the coal wharf, looking
at her with her straight brown
hair and deep brown eyes.
I borrowed it from the school
library, she said, about science.
I looked at the book's cover
with planet's, plants and two
pictures of animals. She said
about her big sister puking
in the night into a bucket.
She closed the book and
placed it on the grass.
I wondered about a planet
and its orbit, but the image
of sister puking came to mind
pushed the planet away,
and whatever the scientist
had to say.
Feb 24, 2018
Feb 24, 2018 at 8:05 AM UTC
She stopped at a passage
of a page she'd been reading.
You know what aphelion is?
I looked out at the coal wharf
over the way. No idea, I said,
thinking maybe a villain of
some kind. She drew her
finger across the page.
Means the furthest point
in a planet's...she hesitated,
in a planet's orbit from
the sun, she said, turning
to gaze at me. What's the
book? I asked, looking away
from the coal wharf, looking
at her with her straight brown
hair and deep brown eyes.
I borrowed it from the school
library, she said, about science.
I looked at the book's cover
with planet's, plants and two
pictures of animals. She said
about her big sister puking
in the night into a bucket.
She closed the book and
placed it on the grass.
I wondered about a planet
and its orbit, but the image
of sister puking came to mind
pushed the planet away,
and whatever the scientist
had to say.
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