Gina I: 224 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.

After the funeral, I had a dream. You were sitting in a field of buttercups. You said, "Tell them I am happy now." Funny. I thought you were happy, neighbor. You lived in a gingerbread house. During the night, you painted your daughter's bathroom Barbie pink. You worked out. You ate organic. At night, we drank multi-colored margaritas and laughed. There were babies involved but we tried not to let them get to us. Who has not had to beat their demon back with a large broom? I thought you had a handle on him. Your skin was better than mine. You were younger. You earned real money. I should have known something was wrong when I met your parents, the inspiration for American Gothic. When the phone call came, I knew what had happened before the words reached me. Why was that? After the dream, I googled the yellow flowers. Turns out you were sitting in a field of rape.

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