Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy

November 28, 2020 10:57 AM

I wasn't planning to leave this life that I'd built purely on some intangible warning from a boy who was half a dream. I liked what I had now: the mindless, fuss-free job; a roommate who was reasonably clean and had no drunk boyfriends to bring over; the little pockets of weird I'd found in the neighborhood, places where I didn't feel quite out of place. For the first time in my life I could see myself continuing down this path towards the future, gray in my hair, a box flat to call a home, a collection of books, half a dozen cats. A tidy and quiet picture that brought me little jolts of pleasure when I thought of it.

A short story by Neon Yang.

posted by smcg (6 comments total)

That was lovely. :)
posted by magstheaxe at 1:06 PM on November 28, 2020

Thanks for posting this! I ran across some work by this author in the past, but I never could remember their name. This solves that mystery.
posted by heteronym at 2:56 PM on November 28, 2020

(If you, like me, you were momentarily disoriented by having seen this story under a different byline, that's because they changed their name earlier this year, which I didn't even know until just now.)
posted by bixfrankonis at 3:12 PM on November 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

That was disconcerting, interesting and cool. Would love to read more set in the same world by the same author. My google foo isn't finding anything, so I hope they write more.
posted by Absolutely No You-Know-What at 2:03 AM on November 29, 2020

Wow that was great!
posted by Wretch729 at 5:59 AM on November 29, 2020

I would also love to read more stories in this world, it really grabbed me. Thanks for the link!
posted by stillnocturnal at 7:19 AM on November 29, 2020