June 2085: adventures in babysitting, part 1

Charlie Roseland is 20, Gabby is 12.


Gabby put her overnight bag by the couch, stuffed full with two weeks of clothes, and she'd left her soccer ball by the door. She looked around her brother's apartment, which seemed oddly vacant somehow, though she couldn't place what was different. It smelled like burnt plastic and pizza. Their parents were going to China so their dad could research for his new book, and Gabby wasn't invited. Charlie wasn't invited either though, so she didn't feel too badly about that.

"You kids can use the house if you want," her mother said. "Are you sure you have enough space here?"

"It's fine, Mom," Charlie said.

"Well you both have keys. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call. Here’s some money, it should be plenty. Where’s Natty?"

June 2085: adult supervision, part 2

Ingrid Thompson is 22, Laney is 26. Andreas Tsoukalos is 27. 


Laney was the responsible one. Laney was the good one. Laney didn't get in trouble, she didn't say bad words, she didn't stay out late, and she certainly didn't go to dive bars in the south end to watch male strippers.

But Ingrid did, and this was Ingrid's idea. "It’s kind of hot," Ingrid said. "But I'm not sure if they're actual strippers. I think they're wearing too many clothes."

June 2085: adult supervision, part 1

Ingrid and Ian Thompson are 22, Laney is 26, Heather and Adam are 52.


"Maybe this sounds weird," Ian said, sloshing his fourth beer sideways with his hand and then righting it before the entire bottle spilled. "But I kind of feel like we never left. Like maybe we might have gone to sleep after high school graduation, dreamed up the whole four years we were in college, finding Connie, dating Connie, getting dumped by Connie, then we woke up, and here we are. Everything's exactly the same. This street, this restaurant, this exact beer that's always a little too warm to be enjoyable. And I'm alone again. What's changed?"

"We got degrees," Ingrid said, shrugging lightly.

"Yeah, I guess we did."

"You got that stupid tattoo on your belly. Undeniable proof that the last four years happened." Ingrid laughed. "Go on, look. See if it's still there."

Ian lifted his shirt. The tattoo was still there. "You thought it was a good idea at the time."

"I was nineteen," she said. "I thought a lot of stupid shit was a good idea that year."

June 2085: break free, part 2

Natty is 20. Ashley is 50, Cabe is 48.

Soundtrack: “I Want to Break Free” by Queen

One thing Natty knew—maybe the only thing she knew—was that she'd always wanted to have short hair, but was never brave enough to try it. Something drastically, dramatically short. Something that left her neck breezy and her ears bare. She'd never had short hair in her life. "I need a haircut," she told her mom. So Ashley took her downtown to her stylist.

It was a busy afternoon, and there were a few women in line ahead of them. They sat to wait, and Natty had come to dread these moments of silence with her mother in the past few days, when never before had she ever dreaded time spent with her mother. When they didn't have anything to talk about, her mother only watched her carefully, like she was trying to unravel a disturbing puzzle.

"Mom, I'm okay," Natty insisted. "If you try to feed me any more, I swear I really will throw up."

June 2085: break free, part 1

Natty is 20. Ashley is 50, Cabe is 48. 

Soundtrack: “I Want to Break Free” by Queen


Natty's room at her parents' new house in Sunrise Shores was probably larger than her whole apartment back home at LCU. Boxes in the corner were still packed, things she didn't need but couldn't get rid of, like old dolls, yearbooks, and prom dresses she'd never wear again. Her bed was brand new, not the twin-sized she'd used as a girl. Now that she was a grown-up, her parents decided to buy a large and cozy queen-sized bed for her and Charlie to share when they came to visit, where they would deny they did any more than cuddle each other at night, but would maybe steal some quick, polite, very quiet sex underneath the covers once or twice while they were here.

She'd never even been here to visit them without Charlie before, and the bed was much too big without him in it.

June 2085: graduation day

High school graduating classes of 2085: 

Lakeside Heights: Ruby McCullough, Parker Michen
Sunrise Shores: Gloria Garth, Shiloh Morgan


Belated pictures from Ruby's graduation and grad party, because this would have happened in June.

I had once taken these pictures thinking I would do a blog story for it, but it became too big and involved and novel-like, so I decided it was the kind of story that would be better suited to books instead. For reasons. Too complicated, overwhelming and smothering the neighborhood. Too many books to write for one lifetime. Life happening. Need to conserve and funnel and allocate my creative energy. And junk.

But I already took these pictures, so I figured I might as well share some of them here, to mark the occasion of these proud young people at the culmination of their high school years.

June 2085: kissing frogs

Lily Riley-Kim and Claude McCullough are 13.

There was one week before school let out for the summer, and Lily wasn't impressed with the season's offerings so far. France was all she could think about. She was going to France. Sure, it was two months away still, but a girl could dream, about the clothes, about the art, about the boys. Certainly there would be boys in France. But that wasn't the only reason she needed to break up with Claude McCullough.

Lily called Claude and told him to meet her at the park near his house. Her Aunt Mariah had to drop off Quinn at her new job, so she had exactly 25 minutes, no more and no less. That was fine. She didn't think she'd need longer than that anyway.

"We have to break up," Lily said.

"What? Why?"