University of Nevada, Reno Mildred and Boris a Thesis Submitted In

University of Nevada, Reno Mildred and Boris A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in English by Christina Camarena Sarah Hulse/Thesis Advisor May, 2018 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL We recommend that the thesis prepared under our supervision by CHRISTINA CAMARENA Entitled Mildred And Boris be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF FINE ARTS Sarah Hulse, Advisor Christopher Coake, Committee Member Jennifer Hill, Committee Member Daniel Enrique Perez, Graduate School Representative David W. Zeh, Ph.D., Dean, Graduate School May, 2018 i Abstract This novel is about two best friends and neighbors growing up in Hawthorne, Nevada. When Mildred’s mother abandons her at age twelve, she and Boris—whose professor father teaches in Moscow—attack the project of growing up in their own way, guided by their instincts, intelligence, imagination and an ever deepening bond. Adolescence brings unexpected changes when Mildred's mother reappears out of thin air, hoping to make up for lost time, and Mildred's life shoots off in an unexpected direction, as does Boris’s. They end up on opposite sides of the globe, but their friendship remains a lifeline, tethering them to one another across distance and time. In the wake of a potentially devastating situation, their friendship guides them through their greatest risks and difficulties. Over and over again, they learn that family and love isn’t always what you expect it to be, and friendship’s bonds can hold you up, even against the penultimate challenge. ii Dedications This novel is dedicated to my partner, my children, and my mother, who supported me every step of the way in completing my MFA program and writing this novel. They inspire me to follow my dreams. iii Acknowledgements Thank you to my mentors, Chris Coake and Sarah Hulse, whose commitment to and enthusiasm for my progress were endless; Jen Hill and Daniel Enrique Perez for their hard work on my committee; the entire MFA faculty; and my incredible cohort of the first graduating class whose support and comradery pulled me through this program and inspired me to keep going. 1 I. The first time Mildred and Boris have sex, Mildred’s head slips over the edge of her small twin bed and hangs. Instead of scooting her back onto the bed, Boris cups his hands underneath her head and holds her steady until they are done. They don’t move much anyway, as Boris is overly concerned with Mildred’s pain level, another sweet but also annoying aspect of his character. He repeats, “Are you okay?” more than ten times. Still, this question is much better than the one she overheard in the locker room from a girl whose first sexual partner said, “Should I call you an ambulance or something?” right after they had sex for the first time. Mildred feels relief at getting the first time of this awkward, painful, mysterious activity over with her best friend instead of some random, creepy sixteen-year-old pervert from Mineral County High School. She can only trust Boris with such an important responsibility. Boris takes his responsibility very seriously—he researched online, looked through books, learned a few yoga poses for them to practice in preparation, studied human anatomy, and even conducted what he referred to as “field research” as to what time Mildred’s father went into deep sleep and how difficult it was to wake him up, unbeknownst by but also much to the annoyance of Mildred’s father. Boris made flow charts and diagrams to show Mildred. Boris rules. She decided not to tell Boris about the conversations she recently overheard her father having. She suspects these odd, heated, late-night conversations are with her missing mother, Beverly. Boris’s mother and Mildred’s father still allow them to have co-ed sleepovers, each believing the other’s child to be gay and neither willing to bring it up to the other, 2 mostly because they don’t particularly care for one another and fear an intense discussion about their children might bind them into an ongoing conversation. Since neither Mildred nor Boris have a second parent living at home, convincing the parent each does have at home to still allow these sleepovers is much easier. They purposefully allow their parents to believe the other is gay, since they agreed nothing romantic would ever occur between them. They weren’t really lying—it may as well be true. And this is also very convenient as they want privacy to try the things they can’t trust anyone else with. Everyone at their high school thinks they are boyfriend and girlfriend because they walk around holding hands. In a town as small a Hawthorne, Nevada, this delicate balance takes a certain amount of finesse—allowing schoolmates to think they’re dating while maintaining to each parent the gayness of the other. When Boris is done, they lie side by side. “Are you okay?” “Geez, Boris, stop asking me. It hurts, but I’ll be fine.” Mildred stands and goes to her private bathroom. She runs a shower and throws the shower curtain open in an effort to step confidently over the edge of the tub but the pain of stretching and tearing open reminds her to step carefully. She’s quite pleased with herself as she gingerly washes away trickles of blood and sweat. Boris pokes his head around the bathroom door. “Let’s go see the bones in the morning.” Mildred drives fast enough to reach Berlin in forty-five minutes, but she doesn’t have a driver’s license yet even though she is old enough. As always, they leave in Mildred’s dad, Hank’s, car with Boris behind the wheel. Leaving him behind the wheel 3 will take an extra thirty minutes so they pull over in the desert and switch seats. Mildred cracks an Icky IPA from their stash in the trunk on her way to the driver seat. She’s sore and needs to take the edge off. Also, Boris’s silence worries her. As Boris walks past her, he lets his hand drag across her hips. His fingertips feel like a claim to being allowed to touch new parts of her. She doesn’t flinch but doesn’t linger either. Boris is way too important to be a boyfriend. Plus, she suspects his thoughtfulness that makes him the best friend ever would make him an annoying boyfriend. Mildred loves Berlin and she loves the Ichthyosaurus fossil. This love started when she learned how fun it was to tell people she’s from “near Berlin” and omit the Nevada part. Just before her mother left them, they took an overnight camping trip to Berlin, also one of her mother’s favorites, and they explored the history. Mildred asked her mother what a “company town” was. “It’s when a company starts a town in a place where they need workers to make money. Never live in a company town, baby. No one owns you.” “It sounds like slavery, Beverly.” Mildred had already stopped calling her mother “Mom” by the time she was eight, except in front of her father, who seemed to be made uncomfortable by Mildred calling her mother by her first name. “She already feels like too much of a stranger,” he said once. “Already?” Mildred asked. “Just call her mom,” he said. “Listen, Mildred,” Beverly told her, “no one ever owns you. No boyfriend, no boss, no father, nobody. In a company town, the people who work there have to work for 4 the boss, buy food from the boss’s store, buy his gas from his gas station, and pay his prices—they owe the boss their freedom. No one is the boss of your life.” Mildred and Beverly called the trip their “world tour” since they drove from Berlin to see the ichthyosaurus fossil and camp overnight, then on to the tiny towns of Manhattan and Austin on highway 50, the loneliest highway in America—all three stops ghost towns and former company towns. In Manhattan, they stood in the abandoned ruins of the Nye and Ormsby County bank while Beverly lectured Mildred on the dangers of putting too much faith in the “green devil.” They put themselves in frightening situations in Austin, hoping for a ghost encounter—graveyard at night, abandoned mining shaft, Stokes Castle in the room where Anson Phelps Stokes hung himself—but no ghosts were interested in them. They did mine a small piece of turquoise each, and when Beverly left, Mildred found her piece and made the set of two into earrings. She’s wearing those turquoise earrings now. “We promised nothing changes, right?” She asks for reassurance of their blood- pinky-spit-swear, an oath they invented to be held above all others. “Yeah, of course. Nothing.” Boris’s words are unconvincing. At the ichthyosaurus site, Mildred runs the palms of her hands over the smooth, clean bones while Boris distracts the park ranger with questions to which he already has answers. “But it is a dinosaur?” This one will get the guy going for a while and Mildred needs a few minutes to strum the teeth, each of her fingers touching each ancient point. “Are those back legs or fins?” 5 After Mildred is done, they wander around the park waiting for the ranger to switch so Boris can have his turn alone with Icky. When they arrive home that evening, Mildred hears her father inside talking loudly on the phone so she painfully climbs through her bedroom window (jeans were a bad choice, as was climbing), sending Boris home so she can spy in private.

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