the unpacking series

It’s my mother’s birthday today.

I.

I swim out to sea.

On the last day of their visit, I spent the day with my niece.

We’re so different.

You’re six when you fly for the first time.

K.: “Just because things don’t go according to plan doesn’t mean the world is going to go up in flames.

Mom, on the phone: “There are raccoons outside.

K.: “You let them take and take from you and every year there is less and less of you.”

A complete stranger: “Wow, I don’t hear an accent at all when you talk.

Every Saturday, we would walk twenty minutes from home to the nearest dim sum restaurant.