i. Träumerei, "Kinderszenen" No. 7; Robert Schumann I was four when I fell in love for the first time. With tender fingers, I traced every one of your lines, black and white smudged slightly with my fingerprints. Naive, my hands caressed your surface like a lover delicately exploring the depths of her beloved’s heart. The world was at my fingertips; you were my world. Your mind lay open before me, a sheet of paper studded with dots and lines and symbols, the genius of all the words and...

Jade thrusts the marinated fish into the wok before instinctively flinching. The oil jumps up from the wok immediately, just as she anticipated; one pop after another. The little girl struggles to keep her balance atop the splintered wooden stool, despite her toes being firmly planted. The cabin is not evident of any signs of life, with the dead silence only disrupted by the sizzling of vegetable oil. She adds a spoonful of salt and mixes it around with a chuan, routinely. She grabs a large...

On a Summer Night in 2018  “Nicks, can I have another one?”  “I don’t know, little one,” Nickole “Nicks” James, the babysitter, replied. “It’s getting late and your parents won’t be too happy if you end up with another sweet tooth.”  The innocent blue eyes suddenly became sheepish. “You know about that?” “Let’s put it this way,” She returned to the living room and sat back on the couch, folding her arms across her chest languidly. “I know about a lot of things I’d prefer not to know...