Read "The Laughter" by Sonora Jha online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The matter of the Halloween party hit me like a ton of bricks as I drove home, aided by my lightheadedness from drinking wine on an empty stomach. I didn't want to miss Emily, so I had avoided until now the things of which she had been the keeper in our lives. Now here I was, seeing flashes of her hands setting out pumpkins for my students to carve, her frown as she stood over the oven looking at a pie that she'd just pulled out and wasn't satisfied with. The oven had seen little to no baking since she left.
"Here, try some, Ollie," she'd say. "The crust must be flakier than last year's." That same line had twisted itself into bitter jabs in our final years together. She'd perform the same actions but her words would be, "Your tongue will recall last year's flake? She was buttery. Perhaps this year's will crumble at the slightest touch?"