[Fiction] The lifelong impact of brief friendships. A woman meets three friends in college who have special gifts:
Charles voice is controlled mortification. You fainted, he says.
One of the girls holds my hand. You totally did, she agrees.
Where are the birds? I say.
They disappeared when you fainted, the other Earring Girl says.
Her face is replaced by a mall paramedic demanding know what year it is, who is president, what my husband’s name is, what my name is.
My husband’s name is Ian, I say.
It is the wrong answer; their faces make this clear.
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