Storyquarterly-52-Digital-Edition.Pdf
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
STORYQUARTERLY RUTGERS UNIVERSITY-CAMDEN PUBLISHER: Rutgers University—Camden EDITOR: Paul Lisicky SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: M.M.M. Hayes SENIOR ADVISORY EDITORS: J.T. Barbarese, Lisa Zeidner SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Robin Black, Lise Funderburg, Lauren Grodstein, Gregory Pardlo, Patrick Rosal MANAGING EDITOR: Stephanie Manuzak READERS: Bhavna Anil, Marah Blake, John Brown, Sarah Browning, Laura Brzyski, Catherine Buck, Wynn Cary, Allie Casey, Zoma Crum-Tesfa, Joshua Demaree, Phil DiCicco, Molly Earner, Emma Eisenberg, Khadeeja Farooqui, Rebekah Flovin, Roy Graham, Emily Helck, Micaiah Johnson, Zach Kennedy-Lopez, Dan Kessel, Craig Knox, Annabel Lang, Christopher Luis-Jorge, Steve Mcgahee, Dani Oliver, Edwin Reese, Juliana Roth, Marie Scarles, Stacey Seidl, Natasha Soto, Greg Sullivan, Tjizembua Tjikuzu, Austin Tucker, Brock Warren, Patience Williams WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO: Elizabeth McCracken, Deb Olin Unferth FOUNDING EDITORS: Pam Painter, Tom Bracken, F.R. Katz, Thalia Selz, Delores Weinberg StoryQuarterly, founded in 1975, is a literary journal published by Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey. We welcome submissions only through our submissions portal, which is available at http://storyquarterly.camden. rutgers.edu. We no longer accept hard copy submissions. Any opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily the opinions of the staff. For subscriptions, please visit us online. For all other correspondence, email the editors at [email protected]. © 2019 by StoryQuarterly, Inc. All rights reserved. StoryQuarterly Department of English 311 North Fifth Street Armitage Hall Rutgers University Camden, NJ 08102 Book design by Jaime Watson Cover design by Kevin Klinskidorn CONTENTS OVERTURE 7 Taisia Kitaiskaia 11 THERE IS NOTHING THAT I WANT (NICHEVO YA NE HOCHU) Shangyang Fang 15 ALMOST THERE, OISTRAKH! Shanygang Fang 17 CONTINGENCY ON SINGULARITY Leah Yacknin-Dawson 19 HITCH (PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME) Leah Yacknin-Dawson 21 GOD IS A WOMAN, AND SHE IS GETTING OLDER (A POPULAR YOM KIPPUR SERMON) Sam Boyer 23 WHEN SEALS RETIRE Rachel Heng 25 A DIFFERENT PLACE Tracey Rose Peyton 27 IGNORANCE Tracey Rose Peyton 29 CELIA IS LEAVING THE PARTY Terrance Harvey 31 THIRD VISIT 33 Scott Gloden THE GREAT AMERICAN EVERYTHING 49 Bruce Holbert OLD DOG, OLD TRICK 59 Emil DeAndreis LUNA AND MR. STRONGBONES 75 Morgan Thomas SURROGATE Prize Winner, 2019 Fiction Contest 91 Pam Diamond THE KNOWLEDGE OF NIGHTINGALES First Runner-up, 2019 Fiction Contest 107 Anna Cabe SELECTED EPISODES FROM WARTIME PHILIPPINES ON A SATURDAY NIGHT Second Runner-up, 2019 Fiction Contest 125 Matthea Harvey COMPETE-FOR-WHAT? 129 J. Vera Lee ADEQUACY 139 Alyssa Songsiridej THE DEMON EATER 149 Corinna Vallianatos FALSE CHOICE 151 S. Kirk Walsh TELL THEM WHO YOU ARE Lisa Olstein 171 THE ROOF IS THE HEAD OF THE BODY OF THE BUILDING Katherine Zlabek 185 ACADEMIC DIALOGUE Prize Winner, 2019 Nonfiction Contest Anjoli Roy 203 LITTLE RED BMW First Runner-up, 2019 Nonfiction Contest Jeremiah Barker 217 LAUNDRY Second Runner-up, 2019 Nonfiction Contest Richard Burgin 241 THE HOTEL KIRILOV Jason Zencka 255 JUNIOR Barbara Hamby 271 IN THE LAND OF THE MIGHTY DINGOES Anah Tillar 285 HOW SHOULD WE REMEMBER HIM? Christa Romanosky 301 BECAUSE NO ONE SAYS, “LOOK INTO THE DARKNESS” Aimee LaBrie 311 WHISTLING IN THE DARK ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS 321 OVERTURE “Komodo dragons resemble dinosaurs that missed their cue for extinction. Capable of smelling blood from miles away, they eat water buffaloes, deer and one another. Their saliva is laced with venom.”1 “The birds band together in ‘screaming parties’—tightly packed formations of up to a dozen swifts that speed madly around trees and rooftops, slalom within inches of chimney pots, or snap suddenly around some invisible axle like a stunt kite.”2 “Studies have detected plastic fibers everywhere—in the stomachs of sperm whales, in tap water and in table salt… Plastic may help define the most recent layer of the earth’s crust because it takes so long to break down and there is so much of it.”3 “It turned out to be complicated to untangle the humpback because ‘ropes running between its mouth and tail had left it hogtied at the surface.’”4 “The majority of this came from one staggering spill on May 4, at a New Port Richey wastewater plant, where 300,000 gallons of untreated sewage leaked onto land and into the nearby Cross Bayou. Only 5 half that was reportedly cleaned up.” “Although people should be aware of 7 the animals…they aren’t looking to harm humans. ‘If you see a shark try to stay as calm as possible. Sharks have the ability to sense your heart rate.’”6 “Interestingly, ornithologists have recorded over 500 variations of this basic song structure—but it is always somehow recognizable as ‘song sparrow.’ An individual song sparrow can have up to 15 different variations on its own song.”7 “The penguin joins other oversized but extinct New Zealand birds including the world’s largest parrot, an eagle with a three-metre wingspan, 3.6 metre-tall moa birds and other giant penguins.”8 “Many of the creatures are keystone species in their ecosystems, such as beavers, and the researchers said their loss will have knock on effects on all fauna and flora and on the many millions of people that depend on the waterways for their livelihoods.”9 “And, since beaches are constantly changing, the sand you walk on today will not be the same sand you walked on last year, last month, or even a few hours ago, whether it came from a natural source or beach fill.”10 “‘It’s yet another piece of information telling us the whales aren’t staying in the boxes we’re drawing on the map.’”11 “‘The chickens were making a racket and that’s when she noticed the moose in the pool.’”12 “These dolphins are known as individuals: they have names and people know their histories. ‘If you are going to treat them as individuals, then you have a responsibility to them as individuals.’”13 “Cossett burrowed into the dirt, using her rear feet like shovels, before finally depositing four eggs, all smooth, oval-shaped and blue-ish, in the nest.”14 “As [the chimpanzee] grew older she helped a diabetic chimpanzee named Abby…remember to get her medication. She was a loving, yet stern, aunt-like figure to a pair of young chimpanzees, Harper and Emma, and she helped Henry, a male chimpanzee who came from a situation of terrible abuse…”15 “And, his llama, Chubby, which goes along with the flock, ‘just wants to make sure everyone is safe and in-bounds.’”16 “The Ganges’s waters brighten in the morning light. They turn from mud brown to a muzzy white-blue, until, at the horizon, the currents shine and appear to flow palely into a paler white sky.”17 “A weaker Gulf Stream would mean higher sea levels for Florida’s east coast. It could lead to colder winters in northern Europe… And it could mean that a lot of the heat that would have gone to Europe would stay along the U.S. east coast and in Florida.”18 “‘The waves hit my kitchen window, and my dining room window. Extremely powerful waves,’ she says, ‘and they have no place to go, if they don’t have 8 a barrier.’”19 “You and I are not free-floating minds that move around the world through text messages, apologetic emails, and bank deposits. We are carbon-based creatures so pathetic that we need a lot of silent plants to make carbon for us.”20 “Scientists have been tracking stream temperatures around the Cook Inlet, located south of Anchorage, since 2002. They’ve never recorded a temperature above 76 degrees Fahrenheit. Until now.”21 “Even in the dead of night, there’s no respite. The Texas Gulf Coast city registered its warmest low temperature on record Thursday.”22 “The glacier was officially declared dead in 2014 when it was no longer thick enough to move. What once was glacier has been reduced to a small patch of ice atop a volcano.”23 “The video shows a young moose scaling some rocks on the cliffs of Nippers Harbour in Newfoundland, Canada. After tentatively toeing around the edge of the rocks, it takes the plunge and dives into the water.”24 “[She] told the Indianapolis Star that after her husband fell [into the volcano], she climbed into the crater to rescue him.”25 “Monarch butterflies—always at the top of everyone’s favorite butterfly list—have returned to Yosemite National Park…. Unfortunately, you might not see huge swarms of them at the park. Western Monarch populations are down 86 percent from last year.”26 “It is possible STORYQUARTERLY that a freakishly warm Arctic, a staggering lack of sea ice, and even possibly smoke from unprecedented wildfires within the Arctic Circle…contributed to this lightning’s unexpected appearance near the top of the world.”27 “The M. family of Luther said holes have been popping up on the property over the years due to an underground pipeline, and people, vehicles and now the calf have fallen in.”28 “[He] is also concerned that the number of visitors at these kettle ponds may increase as shark sightings continue to rise.”29 “The Parks Department wildlife unit says squirrels are capable of finding their own food.”30 “[She] said a gull swooped down between her hand and her face and snatched a Wheat Thin cracker from her fingers without leaving a mark.”31 “The group has 15 goats in Sonoma foster homes that love to munch on blackberry and grape vines, green pioneer grasses, thorny shrubs and bushes, deer browse, chaparral, ceanothus, virtually all domestic plants, and evergreens such as redwoods, cypress and Monterey pine.”32 “‘I don’t think it will be the humans.