See You Later

See You Later

 

Heaven is like the neighborhood where you grew up. Everyone you have ever loved is there, and everyone they have ever loved, too. Your sister is still at home. Your parents get along. Your aunt lives right around the corner, in your grandmother’s old house, and she hasn’t yet disinherited you and your sister to spite your mother, even though your mother was already demented and could not perceive the insult.

 

It’s before your unmarried mother was pregnant with your sister by accident, and your dad didn’t want to marry her.

 

Heaven is before your grandfather was dumped at the orphanage by his father, before his mother died giving birth to his baby sister. It’s before the man molested him and he in turn molested your mother and your aunt and your sister.

 

Heaven is before all those things happened that made us who we are. Everyone will be there, and we’ll all be together again.

 

 Laura Brown

 

Laura Brown is a writer of fiction and nonfiction in New York, where she volunteers as a dramaturg at Red Bull Theater and tries to maintain a garden in the narrow, sunless area behind her apartment building. She is the optimistic author of How to Write Anything: A Complete Guide (W.W. Norton, 2014).