In my kitchen early, frying chicken by 0630. I want the chicken crispy and flavorful. Seasonings of choice…a little garlic powder…pepper…seasoned salt…paprika. Some right on the chicken. Some added to the flour coating. Not much choice here, chicken travels well once cooked, and we’re heading to Cleveland.

My mind says, “Cleveland, where Chris lives.”

We’re sitting in the Greyhound bus station, waiting for the bus and our cousin Deloris.

So now I’m feeling some unnamed way and I see Chris from my mind’s point of view, but Liam is also there, and wtf is all this? My iPod is playing and I’ve critiqued two Zoetrope pieces and maybe I’m hungry for chicken, but I am either missing, or trying to miss Chris.

We’re going to see Auntie and I think of her and I want to cry, and my mind says,

“Not here.”

There are oldies playing that remind me of the very old days when Auntie was young, and our mother was alive and neither me, nor my mind, can picture the two of them together, as if where there was one, there wasn’t the other, and I know this isn’t true, because Auntie visited her twin often. Yes, Auntie is our mother’s twin.

Now it’s so sad because this could be our last visit to Cleveland with Auntie as our reason to go, and my mind is saying,

“Don’t think that now, not now.”

I want to cry now, rid myself of tears, so that I don’t cry at all in Cleveland. Auntie, when she leaves us, will join her twin and all her siblings. They will be young, possibly children, and they will be happy. They could be adults, reunited with lost spouses.

My mind says,

“They should be children. That way spouses who are not missed, will not look sadly on happy reunions.”

I agree. Yes, they should be children. All smiles, all happy. I like that image mind, I’ll go with that one.