“Did you know mayflies live only a day?” Helena asks.When I don’t reply, she continues, “And the Atlas moth emerges from its cocoon without a mouth—can’t feed or drink until its death. It’s funny, if you think about it.”We’re naked in a bed of moss-soft velvet, our hair twined together like tendrils of wisteria across […]
I was part of the sea, once. I was foam and coral and silvery fish scale, bundled into a tail and a torso with a voice like golden rain. My sisters sang sailors to their deaths and laughed while I collected curious pieces of flotsam. One day, I collected a still-breathing prince draped across a […]
The white lady of Irrigan is so named because one of her experiments bleached a lock of her hair. Her maids, affectionately, claim she is more badger than woman. It makes her smile, but they won’t say a word about the scar that runs down her chest.Irrigan now keeps the windows in her lab open […]
There is a little alleyway that hooks off İstiklal Caddesi known only to the children of Karaköy. On summer nights they spill through the dim doorway at arcade’s end, under the sign that spells “Dr Daidalo and Son”. The little theatre is cramped, its wooden benches bare. They squabble and cuss in their seats, elbowing […]
There is a lesson we are taught in childhood, the lesson of finding our purpose in life—as if purpose was fixed and finite. Unlike the generations who predate us, whose circumstances would dictate their choices and options, the 21st century offers an abundance of choices (for the lucky ones). In my twenties, I defaulted to the […]
The windowless theater makes it impossible to keep track of the days, but I am certain that years have passed since Fyodor’s last visit. I fear that he has died while his magic has not, for here I still stand, a swan maiden poised forever on pointe. Forever cursed. I often wonder how our Swan Lake tableau […]