Oranges

In Portugal, you loved the orange juice.

You couldn’t believe that no one — of the many people who had been to Portugal before us — no one had mentioned the orange juice.

After that, you made it your life’s mission to tell everyone who was going, or might one day go, to Portugal, about the orange juice.

*

On our way to Joshua Tree, we stopped at a Trader Joe’s in LA.

We browsed the citrus.

We bought a smattering of citrus.

At the register, you asked the cashier his favorite citrus.

He named a kind you hadn’t picked out.

He rang us up.

I went outside with our purchases, and you doubled back to the citrus, and bought two bags of the kind the cashier recommended.

Sumo.

Of all the varieties, we loved Sumo best. 

For three days and three nights in Joshua Tree, we peeled sumo. In slot canyons, in a sandstorm.

Sumo, it turns out, is also available at Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn, but it’s not as good here, as in California.

Traveling cross-country does not improve fruit.

In California, even the lobby oranges were top-notch. We went in and out of the hotel, pretending each time that we were noticing the oranges for the first time.

The bowl diminished.

The bowl refilled.

*

NEWS!

I am thrilled to share I was awarded a writing residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA). I'll be there April 1 - 14, powering through to the end of the first full draft of my novel. (No pressure, ha.)

I didn't win funding, so I have to pay about $1100 for room and board. If you enjoy my letters and have the means, this would be a lovely time to subscribe. For $50/year or $5/month, you'll get access to the full archive of DIVINITY SCHOOL — that’s six months' of weekly letters)! You'll be supporting my work, and by extension, VCCA's ability to keep hosting writers.

&/or please share DIVINITY SCHOOL with a friend. That means just as much as a subscription. XO