Purify

When I was a sophomore in high school, I watched Gone with the Wind three times in a row, and cried myself stupid. The first time I heard The Cure’s Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, the summer after 7th grade, it was all I… Read more

Health

I got sick when I was twenty-five. Actually, the story must begin differently. I want to tell about the time I went to Pipeline, my first summer in Hawaii, with my family and some of our friends. I’d swum out maybe twenty feet when a… Read more

Recovery

Even eating a brownie, across the table from me, he’s not OK.

“Do you want to tell me?” I ask.

“I can’t say,” he says.

“How’s the brownie?”

“I like it,” he says.

“Do you know about reputation?”

He shakes his head. “What is it?”… Read more

Faux power

Mary works as an inpatient addiction counselor. This week the clients had a secret-keeping exercise. Each was tasked to write down every secret she’d kept since entering treatment. They were separated while they wrote out their lists. Usually it’s a purifying exercise. A chance to… Read more