Catapult Alumni
Charlie
My father looked away from the mailbox and was quite surprised to see him running down the street. As well, I suppose that my father surprised him because he stopped when seeing him before turning and leaping over the fence bordering our garden. My father hurried to the house and through the garden room to […]
The Gift of Forever
The excavation of the pit had been going on for the better part of two days. Like many diggers working on the vast grid, Chad was beginning to think his particular stratigraphic unit had every outward appearance of yielding no evidence of early human occupation. Monotony was kicking in. The heat from the sky […]
The Importance of Fruits
I love an early morning walk in the country with my dog because the air is fresh and silent to the exception of birds twittering. However, someone was shattering the natural tranquility of one morning when shouting: ‘You with the dog, excuse me. Hello!’ I looked around to see an elderly woman waving to me […]
Celebrating Individuality
As the diner’s door opens, a gush of cold, and damp, air stirs the candle’s flame. Its flickering light dances over Madison as she scolds Christian playfully: ‘You know that you’re, incredibly, overdressed.’ Christian scoffs: ‘I don’t care.’ Madison holds a smirk as Christian casts words of defiance: ‘I love fashion. I love looking to […]
Exes are Essential
Christian stands with Madison watching her ex-boyfriend: he is crossing the room snapping his fingers and swaying in a dancing rhythm while lip-syncing the words to the song that is playing. Christian looks to Madison: ‘I see him slathering himself with his semen, and rolling in superfine sugar before stepping to stand before a full-length […]
Imagining the Season
I stepped from the darting dogs and voices of their masters to stop beneath the gnarled fingers intertwining before me: I looked to them absorbing their dancing rhythms as they reached from their sturdy, but tilted trunks for the western light. A path of plush loam wove its way beneath them, and I felt myself […]
Another Walk
The air was softer than it had been as I stumbled over the angled stones beneath my feet. I couldn’t scold them because I hold too much respect for the roots gnarling beneath them: they provide life to the decades old trees lining the walk beside the park. I thought the same of the sounds […]
I Wasn’t Alone
In the third grade, I wasn’t alone when Mother Superior slapped my face for returning a smile to another student. While standing at the side of her desk, later that day, I wasn’t alone when she asked me to extend my arms towards her, and open my hands turning their palms towards God. No, I […]
Walk the Moon
The distance and the difference between us is just illusion
Return to Partition: Finding Pakistan’s Past in India’s Present
The first time my grandfather crossed the India-Pakistan border was in 1947; the next time he crossed was in 2007, with me.
