Alice: 283 Mt. Vernon
by Kelly Fordon
Kelly Fordon

Kelly Fordon has just finished work on her first novel: Love Fits Itself, which is currently being shopped by her agent. Prior to writing fiction and poetry, she worked as a reporter at the NPR member station in Detroit and as an editorial production assistant for National Geographic magazine. She graduated from Kenyon College and received her M.S. in Journalism from Ohio University. Her work is upcoming in The Kenyon Review On-Line. She has been published in Flashquake, Red Wheelbarrow, The Windsor Review and several other journals. She lives in Michigan with her husband and children.

Alice has long blonde hair, a Bruschwig and Fils bedroom, a pool in her back yard, two nannies who won't speak English. On rainy days, we watch movies. We know someday Billy Jack will show up and facekick someone. The thought gives us hope. Sadness is like the hiccups. Every foil works once. Prying cookie dough off a rolling pin is easier than separating us. We are the Little Princesses in our drafty garrets. We teach ourselves how to wipe. Locked out during the storm, we smash the triple pane window with our bare hands. When they won't give us what we need, we take it—Poptarts, bedtime stories, warm hands.

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