Well
by Allie Zenwirth
She woke up to the rambunctious music.
The night before, her mother’s special friend added two garbage bags full of clothing drive clothing to the overflowing collection of, among other things: National Guard Issue blankets, Consumer Review, sprouting potatoes, and mushy apples. She was asleep when a crate of cracked bar glasses tipped over. So now, in the bathroom, her thighs against the cold porcelain of the toilet seat, she was busy wrapping her pouring blood feet with toilet paper.
“Smile, it is a very easy thing…” Her mother was singing along to the cassette.
Allie Zenwirth grew up in the Chasidic community. She escaped through the help of others and found herself at Sarah Lawrence College where she studied dance and writing. Her work has appeared in Longreads, Vagabond City, and X-R-A-Y. She can be found on Twitter at @AllieZenwirth.