“Apologize to your little sister,” our mother scolded. But Luke insisted he didn’t tug the back of my nightgown in the dark, didn’t cause my house-waking scream—and when I thought of those blazing white eyes floating above me when I’d rolled over, I knew my brother was not lying.
Robin LaVoie writes at It’s Like This. She lives in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, with her husband and son, and still won’t sleep with her back to the door.
After a rush to exfoliate and color away years of children and scour closets for outfits inappropriate for soccer practice, they crash into a Vegas hotel room, where, in a flash of giddy consensus, they dump their over-stuffed bags and non-sensible shoes, order room service, draw blackout curtains, and sleep.
Robin LaVoie is presently sweating in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona. She writes personal essay and creative nonfiction on her Substack publication, It’s Like This, and her work has appeared in print and online, including Monday Coffee and Other Stories of Mothering Children with Special Needs (Inwords Press, 2013), Pentimento Magazine, BarBar, and NonBinary Review.