I Left Home With 200 Dollars After My Family Called Me Unstable Then My Sister Found My Name Online

planned the direction, known where I was heading, but the specific language arrived only in the moment itself, the way the truest things tend to.

I grew up in a small town very much like this one, I said. Some of you might remember me.

A pause. The room went very still.

I left seven years ago with two hundred dollars, a suitcase, and a bus ticket, I said.continue reading …