Stories are Russian dolls: around each one is the story of telling it. For instance there is the night with my brothers, in an aquatic-themed bar in Naples, them saying, even though they are younger than I am and didn’t go to a woke college, “I’m sorry that happened to you.” My next drinks were on them, and I was conscious even then that the assault was grit for the pearl around it: in a world of bad men, my brothers are good and love me. Not everyone is so lucky.
Frame
Stories are Russian dolls: around each one is the story of telling it. For instance there is the night with my brothers, in an aquatic-themed bar in Naples, them saying, even though they are younger than I am and didn’t go to a woke college, “I’m sorry that happened to you.” My next drinks were on them, and I was conscious even then that the assault was grit for the pearl around it: in a world of bad men, my brothers are good and love me. Not everyone is so lucky.
Issue 8
https://manyworlds.place/issue-8/sophia-carroll/
Sophia Carroll (she/they) is an analytical chemist and writer. Her work appears or is forthcoming in SmokeLong Quarterly, Wildness, DOOR=JAR, and elsewhere. Find her on Substack at Torpor Chamber and on Bluesky @torpor-chamber.bsky.social.