Advisory: this passage contains abusive language and a dream sequence with an imagined sexual assault.

from The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna

Youth (The Fifth Death)

by Juliet Grames

THE  FIFTH DEATH BEGAN IN A DREAM.

One July morning in 1941, in the hanging lavender of predawn, Stella Fortuna rose from the bed she shared with Tina, leaving her sister to her last minutes of wet late-sleep snoring before their grueling day in the tobacco fields.

Stella took their ceramic washbasin to the kitchen, filled it with warm water, and brought it back to their nightstand. This was the girls’ beauty area, safe from the hectic imperialism of the boys’ barging and odors. This morning in her dream-for this was a dream-Stella watched her own face in the scuffed blue mirror nailed to the wall above the basin as she guided her washcloth over the areas that needed the most attention. She didn’t recognize herself, but that didn’t seem strange. Continue reading The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna →