These Dreams of You

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Viv writes the email and sits before the laptop waiting as though an answer will appear immediately. I chose you to be her mother, is the answer when it comes from the grandmother, as translated by Sheba’s aunt, through God, almost exactly as she said to Viv two years ago.

The night before Viv receives the message that changes everything, Piranha disappears, having braved and broken through his high-voltage corral once and for all. Viv stands on the deck of the house calling, but only when Sheba howls her half of their duet does the dog howl back in the distance. It’s a howl that defies interpretation. Maybe it means goodbye, maybe it means so long, suckers, maybe it means help I’m being pursued by coyotes, maybe it means you try wearing one of these fucking electric collars and see how you like it. In any case, he’s gone.