I refuse to read the books I’ve bought, I only organize them.

They’re clenched tightly on my bookshelf: alphabetized and dusted daily. The spines are bound as one, like a row of incisors rotting with black titles.

When you’re bereaved, you can’t help preserving the past.

These books were Matthew’s.

Dustin holds a screenwriting degree from California State University Long Beach and currently works as a performer at Disneyland, Anaheim. This is his first submitted piece of flash fiction.