Friday Supper

by Mike Itaya

Friday Supper: all it takes is a moment to go south when my twin sister Darla brings home Furlong Dong (who used to love me)―in the middle of 5-Layer Friday―and they get in a big-ass fight about teevee-time, and Darla leaves, taking my sackful of Taco Bell burritos with her, so instead of a mouthful of Mexican, all I get is Furlong Dong weeping into my faux mohair sweater, and Furlong says “If you yell all alone inside a double wide, does it even make a sound?”―and yells really goddamn loud―so loud I grab his hand, saying “You’ll never be alone, Furlong,” and he stares at my chest, saying “If you took off that faux mohair, that would be really cool,” and I scurry to the bathroom where I struggle with the sweater, but looking in the mirror I see the person I will always be (and back in the living room, I hear Furlong trying to suck my Baja Blast Freeze through a straw) and watch disappointment creep back into my face, and I ask the unhappy woman before me, If you cry alone inside the darkened trailer of night, does it even make a sound? 

Mike Itaya lives in southern Alabama, where he works in a library. His work appears in New Orleans Review, BULL, and Storm Cellar. He holds an MFA in Fiction from Pacific University.