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Date: April 23 – 24, 2022
Location: University of Southern California (USC campus)
Booth: 913
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Date: January 8th, 2022
Location: Books & Books Coral Gables, 265 Aragon Ave, Coral Gables
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Who’s underneath?
I stood still, as people in yellow medical gowns ran around me. Half their heads covered in sky blue. Their eyes, dispirited, peered at me for a second then darted away. Emotional numbness seeped its way into my cells. Only the sound of my shallow breathing into what looked like a white cardboard bra cup with a minuscule vent was familiar and comforting to me. My breath was all I had. It now identified me. As without it, I, Janet Bloom would cease to exist.
(500 words – Theme: “Bridge”)
It was twilight, and the violet skies would soon hide the green from the trees as the night closed in.
“You must choose!”
I looked around, scanning the forest for the speaker where the echoey robotic voice instructing me to choose was coming from.
A loud high-pitched sound vibrated throughout the forest. My thumb pressed hard on the flashlight switch…just a small push would light my way, but I hesitated.