Hungered
The article reflects on the narrator's experiences with cleanliness and family dynamics. It highlights the contrast between the narrator's reluctance to clean and their father's insistence on maintaining a tidy home. The story also captures moments of sibling interaction and the challenges of waiting in a hot car for their mother.
- ▪The narrator struggles with cleaning their room, often letting dust accumulate.
- ▪The father takes pride in the family's home, which he built with his own efforts.
- ▪The narrator and their sibling, Rafa, experience hunger while waiting for their mother in a hot car.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
I never liked cleaning my room. At home, I would let dust coat my windows like dryer lint before finally listening to mama and taking a wet paper towel to the glass. My clothes, a mountain range of frilly skirts, dark jeans, and long-sleeve dresses on my bedroom floor. Baba said we must—and that was the word he used, “must”—keep the house clean. He worked his whole life for this house, he would say, then tell us, again, how he got here, that he moved here all alone when he was in his twenties, with two hundred dollars and a brown suitcase and three words in English: “water,” “church,” and “Lemonbalm,” the street where his cousin lived. He was proud of the house. “Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a pool, and a hot tub,” he would tell anyone who asked.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Literary Hub.
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