“My Mother and the Sea” appears in the Autumn 2021 issue of The Phare: Coast.

“You’ll have to go in,” he said. Up to this point, he has been soft, gentle, protective. And he still is, in his tone, but in his direction, he is pushing me. He was pushing me, but he was doing it to save me—he knew it was I who needed to perform this act, more than him. He had slept next to her mattress imprint every night, the soft dip in her pillow; I had not had the closure, had not run my fingers over the physical gap she had left beside me night after night.

Read more: https://www.thephare.com/mymotherandthesea