Tanya Žilinskas
1. THE DISPATCHTwo Knocks
Teddy stayed home from school that day, even though her mother had to go to the office. Teddy didn’t feel like going to school, and she said, again and again, I’m sick. I don’t feel well. This was something Teddy had discovered, that repetition could sway parents. This was the new power she had.
Teddy’s mother left for work, and Teddy made two cinnamon toasts and watched three hours of cartoons and then there were two knocks at the front door. Teddy couldn’t see who it was through the door’s frosted glass, but it might be a delivery, and it was always a problem to miss a delivery.
But it was not the mailman. It was a stranger. The stranger had on a suit; no, not a suit. It was beige and had one big zipper, like the pajamas with feet Teddy used to wear. The stranger was holding a folded paper in their hand.
Are your parents home? the stranger said. I have something important I need to share with them. The stranger offered the paper to Teddy, and Teddy took it. NEW VOYAGES, it said, and there was a faded drawing of a person with their eyes closed, arms stretched out beneath the rays of a turquoise sun.
My mother is working, Teddy said. She’s here but very busy.
This is something your mama needs to know, the stranger said, and they were looking beyond Teddy, into the house. It’s more important than anything.
It’s just she’s very busy right now and can’t talk.
It’s more important than work, the stranger said, and they looked Teddy up and down. Are you a boy or a girl?
I’m a rabbit, Teddy said. Teddy had shoulder-length hair and favored the color grey and was used to this question.
We had a neighbor, kept rabbits, the stranger said.
I love bunnies, Teddy said. I wish I could have a bunny.
Weren’t pets. Food rabbits.
Teddy could see something dark in the stranger’s mouth; it could be a tooth or a bit of food or it could be a hole. A big hole that would suck everything into it. I would never eat a rabbit, Teddy said.
You would if you were hungry, the stranger said. One day soon we all might be hungry. That’s why your mama needs to see this pamphlet. She won’t know what to do otherwise.
Teddy opened the pamphlet and there was a picture of something like rain coming from the sky, the drops pointed like knives. The people below were crying, like the rain hurt.
Where’s your daddy, the stranger asked, and without thinking Teddy said he didn’t live with them anymore. The stranger’s face turned in on itself like a pill bug.
Then you wouldn’t be able to join us, the stranger said. None of y’all.
I could if I wanted to, Teddy said. But I don’t.
Why don’t you come outside, the stranger said. Come outside and I’ll chase you like a little rabbit.
Teddy thought she could see her mother’s car, driving toward them from the other end of the street. My mama’s here, Teddy wanted to say, but no words came out. The stranger stepped forward, blocking the sun so all Teddy could see were daggers of blue-green light.
2. BUREAU INVENTORYNotebooks
Octopus mug
Shirley Jackson print
‘I like you’ flower
Violet
Ticket jar
Novel-in-stories-in-Post-Its
Whiteboard
Misleading clock
3. BIOGRAPHYTanya Žilinskas lives in Northern California. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Florida Review, Southern Humanities Review, Meetinghouse, and elsewhere. She is an MFA candidate in fiction at the University of San Francisco and the editor-in-chief of Invisible City. She is currently revising a California Gothic novel-in-stories. Find her at tanyazilinskas.com and on Twitter @TanyaZilinskas.