Kit knows she will be all alone soon.

(from The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007)

The beach is crowded with other mothers, the kind Kit yearns for: younger mothers in tight bathing suits cutting red marks in their jowly thighs,mothers playing mahjong with bits of damp tile, mothers lighting cigarettes and smoothing chalk cream on peeling noses.

Her mom is sick who left her alone on the beach as a kid(maybe). Her boyfriend’s a passionate but untrustworthy flake. So Kit, whose insecurities often lead to her to imagine the worst and recall her family’s sad history. Seems to me, she’s kind of a Debbie Downer who’s had it better than she realizes. But, whatever, it’s your life, Kit. People deal how they deal. Read a little bit of this small, serpentine, imaginative story here, on this ugly weird page.