Gina II: 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.

I knew that normal people don't paint whole bedrooms during the night and then get up to care for four children the next day. I knew you couldn't have invented the immersible blender. I knew you weighed more than 110. And even though I wondered at your assertion that you had the highest grade point average at Michigan State, I didn't press you. Your kids were too quiet, too well behaved. Something was awry. But, I wanted to believe that you were that thin and smart and powerful and that it was possible to have kids who picked up their toys on command. You had furniture that matched and you fixed your own leaky faucets. Every day after playgroup, my face started to ooze off the bone like meat that has simmered all day in a crockpot. I wanted to send you up my flagpole. I wanted to blow my bugle and salute.

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