The Mare

Velvet

“Those people weird,” said Dante. “That ugly man and that lady like a cat food and sugar sandwich.”

“They’re not weird,” I said. “They’re like people are supposed to be. They’re nice and they don’t yell, not even when they’re mad.”

“That lady is nice because she’s in the sky,” said my mom.

“Her name is Ginger.”

“Whatever her name is, she lives in the sky. She’s nice like a little girl is nice.”

“The people I stayed with were fucked up,” said Dante. “The food they ate was crap.”

“Mami,” I said. “The place I worked? There was a horse who really liked me because the little girl who owned her before looked like me. I was the only person there that she liked.”

“What happened to the little girl who owned her before?”

“Her parents wouldn’t let her see the horse anymore because—”

“Because they didn’t want their daughter to get killed. Listen, you think I don’t know? Where I grew up, horses used to walk in the street. Now stop talking before you give me a headache.”