from I Remember You Well in the Charlottesville Motel

by Justin Carter

There was the time our boss, Leonard, invited us over for dinner. He lived in the Lakes, a gated community that didn’t actually have a lake inside it, though it did have a golf course & a lot of pill problems. Leonard’s house was three-stories, set back from the road with a long driveway. Everything inside was airplane themed—Amelia Earhart coffee mugs, aviator goggles hanging behind the bathroom toilet. I was taking a shit, Louise whispered to me, & I looked up & there was a Boeing wing sticking out of the ceiling. Dinner was fried chicken & green beans. Leonard showed us his collection of news clippings about the Lindbergh baby, then ushered us out when we failed to show the proper amount of interest.