My Cardboard Balcony

by Belinda Roddie "That stuff on your face makes you look like an alien." "Yeah, well, your face makes you look like your face!" "Yeah. Very classy, John." "Look, it's exfoliating cream, okay? It's supposed to clean my pores." "Right. And you're smearing it all over the lip of your beer bottle." "It's not that close to my mouth!" "The bottle would disagree." "Aaron. I've got terrible acne. Like, fucking horrid. I look like Deadpool over here." "No, you don't." "Sure I do. I'm gonna be all scarred up just like him." "I knew I shouldn't have taken you to see that movie." "I'm going to buy myself some katanas, too!" "Another reason why I shouldn't have taken you to see it." "Hey. Katanas are awesome, dude. I figured you'd be cool with that." "Why would I be cool wi...

Duke held the newborn baby in his arms and wondered, quietly, just where this infant would be in twenty years. Outside, it was getting warmer all the time, and the tides were rising bit by bit along the seaside home, threatening to tear it from its footing and send its wooden and concrete legs off balance. Duke looked at his wife, who was still asleep in the little bed they shared, with the midwife wiping her forehead with a wet cloth from time to time.