• Lucine looked out at the night sky, and wondered where her life was going. She had a dead-end job, abusive boyfriend and no family left to escape to. She also had a child on the way, and she knew the father wasn’t her boyfriend, who was sterile. Curled up on a patio chair on their back porch, drink in hand, she saw a bright flash streak across the corner of her vision, and realized she had just witnessed a shooting star. It had taken her a moment to register, for she hadn’t see one since her childhood back on the warm beaches of Crete. She vaguely remembered you were supposed to wish on shooting stars, and she closed her eyes, and wished with all of her might to be free from the horrible world around her. She fell asleep with the wish still repeating in her head.


    “WAKE UP b***h!!!” was what she woke up to, the harsh words uttered by her boyfriend Ulrich. Several blows accompanied this. Several harsh blows. To the head. “What cho thinkin’ ‘bout fallin’ asleep out here?” for a moment Ulrich almost seemed concerned. “What cho think them neighbors gone’ say when they see my girl passed out on the damn porch hmmm?” Lucine was furious. She raised her palm and smacked him across the face. “ That’s what the neighbors are going to think Ulrich” she commented, then shambled inside the house, leaving her boyfriend in a state of shock. She had never hit him before, and he was unused to the pain. She casually locked the back door behind her, but secretly her heart was racing. She had never had the courage to do that before, and it kind of scared her. It was like someone had occupied the broken husk of her body, and had momentarily taken over. Now as she heard Ulrich beat on the door she felt a newfound sense of self-confidence. I can take this a*****e down, she thought. I can take him down.

    She decided to call her always-supportive friend Li Mei. She was home as always, and was shocked and impressed she had had the nerve to kick Ulrich out. “OMG! I just can’t believe you finally did it!! I’m so proud of you Hun!!” she gushed over the phone. “ Now all you have to do I find an apartment to chillax in. you can come share mine!!” Li Mei lived in a small two-room apartment over the top of her parent’s sushi shop, and she sure could make a mean California wrap. “I think I might take you up on that offer” Lucine mused, and Li Mei squealed. “It’ll be like one big slumber party!”. Sure, Lucine thought, sure.