“Wherefore, Egypt?” — Microfiction

May 15, 2016
by

by Jason Velázquez

“¿Mamá?” Esperanza’s question reverberates musically in the back of the Econoline, “¿Will I get to meet my papá?”

Dolores strokes the 11-year-old’s hair with one hand as the other glides reflexively to where, under her oil-stained work shirt, a circular pattern of raised, and occasionally sensitive, skin is a lighter color than the surrounding flesh.

Esperanza’s features are so fine, her frame so delicate and unlike her own, Dolores considers, that she might actually be able to identify the father. He will certainly introduce himself to Esperanza. The barest hint of curve, disguising the bony angles of fifth grade, will not escape their notice. ¿How long—weeks? Maybe just days after the pair is deposited in a town she hasn’t seen since she was still Lolita.

“Yes, bebé,” Dolores quietly decides as the van sails through the darkness. “You are going to meet your papá,” she reassures the figure cradled in her lap that is so graceful, even now, in its stillness.

Previous Story

INDIEcent Exposure #22 — Welcoming a New Reality with Starseed

"Homeless on Bench," by Tomas Castelazo; CC BY-SA 3.0; GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons
Next Story

“Jerry’s Java for Jesus” — Flash Fiction

Latest from Fiction

Fiction: Keypads, Prologue

The promenade took on a subtle, but detectable, shift in mood as the spectrum of dusk oscillated on the glossy, sullen surface
"Pholcus phalangioides," by Olaf Leillinger

FICTION: Cellar Spider

“Kill it, Daddy.” He looked at his little girl, stiff and wide-eyed on the hotel room cot, with the covers pulled up
By Toby Hudson (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

FICTION:
Selecting Cantaloupes

by Jason Velázquez He remembered that she liked cantaloupe. Correction: he remembered that she loved cantaloupe. She told him that if he