"January Term," a story started long ago and finished recently has been published by Typishly, a stylish online literary journal (which, true to my own heart, believes in serifs, in this heathen age of sans!).
It all begins with Ariel, named for Shakespeare's "tricksy" spirit—
"As Lucy fought her way out of the Super Shuttle outside Meadow Hall two days after the New Year, a great gray cat quite nearly landed on her head. In class last fall she'd learned that Coleridge called drama a willing suspension of disbelief, the audience agreeing to set aside their critical faculties in order to be entertained. And so she chose to be enchanted by the falling cat, all fur and canny turquoise eyes, as by a blazing comet foretelling the coming of kings, and didn’t mind that it almost hit her. (Missed her by a whisker, as her Grandma Verna waiting tables back in Des Moines would have said.)
The cat in turn was perfectly oblivious to Lucy, as to the cry of 'Ariel!' directed at it from above, and sauntered off with imposing disdain into the emerald-green grasses in front of the old dorm."
image: Collage, Christie B. Cochrell
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