“Sisters in the Woods” by Avra Elliott (fiction, ’15)

A story by Avra Elliott (fiction, ’15) appears in Sweet Tree Review:

 

Sisters in the Woods

 

The year she would turn thirteen, Cassie’s parents sat her down to announce their divorce. Her father handed her a Fudgsicle, as though that might soften the news that he was gay and leaving New Mexico to live in New Jersey. He rubbed his nub of a goatee and said, “I’ve always wanted to see the Stone Pony.”

School had let out the day before, and Cassie had been looking forward to weeks of swimming in their small, above ground pool. Instead Cassie rode shotgun beside her mother—who seemed to think imminent abandonment demoted Cassie’s father to the backseat—and dropped her father at the bus station.