Vendela Vida

Everything ugly is hidden.

My father has always been able to look past the damaged lives a house has witnessed

We can feel this urge pulsating through our bodies, but we don’t know what to call it

His fingers spider-walk over to my hand and he holds it. I feel his heartbeat in his thumb.

And choosing teenage protagonists made sense: When you’re a teenager you’re trying on new identities, and lying is, to some extent, part of that shape-shifting. The trick is to eventually be able to tell the truth about yourself.