by Lara Haynes Freed
By accident, she learned she could Visit. It frightened her and she stopped.
But over time, the desire to Visit arose on an internal tide of weariness. Ennui. Maternal angst. That desire was a cumulative response: to eye-rolls, to rhetorical sighs. Phones always in hand, teenage attitude. “Whatever.” Visit-lust accompanied a surge of Baudelairean spleen, as if Charles himself had been a single mother of two.
First she Visited them as babies – precious but sleepless days. Then, three and five – needy but sweet. Six and eight – her favourite.
She always returned renewed. Reassured.
As time unwinds, love changes but abides.
Author bio: Lara Haynes Freed is a Midwest-born transplant to the Pacific Northwest. She studied linguistics and literature at the University of Kansas, and screenwriting and technical writing at the University of Washington. Lara is inspired by interests in mythology, psychology, language, and subculture. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in And/Both magazine, and her short fiction received an Honorable Mention in the Regulus Press 2018 Literary Taxidermy competition.
L'Albatros is part of 101 Fiction issue 25.
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