John looks down at the wrapped cat. He trails his finger across it like a child guessing what鈥檚 inside a present, thinking of Edwin in the window the other night. Of the little things: wrapping presents and putting nails in wood. The forest and the grass and the umbrella. His finger dips when it falls into a socket.
鈥淚t can鈥檛 be buried here.鈥
鈥淲hat?鈥
鈥淚t can鈥檛.鈥
鈥淲hy not?鈥
He pauses. 鈥淏ecause. It can鈥檛鈥 鈥
Bio:
Daniel Green is a PhD student at Western University. His writing has appeared in Queen鈥檚 Quarterly, the Lamp, Carolyn Smart鈥檚 Lake Effect 10, the Undergraduate Review, and the Journal of American Culture. He is the winner of the 2021 McIlquham Foundation Prize in English for his short story 鈥淏allad of a Thin Man,鈥 and he co-founded Quilt, which publishes academic and creative writing at Queen鈥檚 University.
[IMAGE CAPTION: Artwork by Xiaorou Fan]