This Other Eden

Zachary had lived his entire life on Apple Island since then. Hunger wore everyone to exhaustion, the family wrapped and huddled around the stove heads bowed, meager dinner almost making things worse. The sun flared in the glass and his face appeared, backlit, ringed in its light, darker for the contrast than it really was, and for an instant he saw his father’s side of the family pull forward to the front of his features. Finally, she stuck her withered hand out and took the papers and shut the door on him.