The Talk

by H. Marin

The what happens when the scales come in talk wasn’t one I’d gotten to have with Momma before she’d retreated into the ocean and never come back up. I stubbornly dig them out in the shower and flick them into the drain, blood tracing tributaries down my calves.

The next morning, sunlight illuminates the drying cairn. Sea-green beacons waver on tile.

I pause, then collect up my aborted heirlooms, licking their salt and sticking them to the windowpane.

The walls undulate in currents and tides. Momma speaks to me in the way I itch when my inheritance breaks the skin.

H. Marin (she/they) is a disabled queer author of dark speculative fiction and the novelette editor at foofaraw. She holds an MFA from Fairfield University and lives in New England with her partner in literature and in life, her two children, and her two black cats. An active member of the SFWA, HWA, and Codex, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in FFO, If There's Anyone Left, and a queer Tenebrous Press anthology, among others. Follow her on Bluesky at hanmarin.bsky.social and find more from her at hmarinliterary.com.