all apologies - the beginning of the end in the 1990s.

samoline avenue - an excerpt from a work in progress.

backyard, samoline avenue; downey, ca. circa 1985 // photographed by pan ellington.

For some paid posts I’ll be sharing a bit of my works in progress, sometimes chapter excerpts chosen at random, other times I’ll share some of my process from one edit to another. For today, I give you the first chapter.

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samoline avenue.

I beat my alarm by two minutes, this day beginning for me like they all do. Up at six to be at school by eight, I clear my eyes, feel them focus on the popcorn ceiling of my bedroom, probably toxic, and long since destroyed by Cat Madigan and I, on one of our infamous afternoons when we’d reveled in the act of scratching our names into the ceiling with the end of a cymbal stand, along with random phrases, band names, and curse words.

My room sits in the back of the house in which they’d hoped to realize their middle class dream for us - a large, sprawling, tract home with its own little details and quirks, one off from the corner, across the street from Dovie and Floyd and next door to Mrs. Wilson, on a curvy, tree-lined avenue in safe, suburban SoCal, white bread America, the home of Karen Carpenter - Downey, California. It wasn’t originally meant to be a bedroom, I don’t think, more like an office or a bonus room by the look of it. It’s got these kitschy, 1970’s built-ins and that - cabinets along one wall, cork board above one corner, above the other book shelves, split by a window that looks out on the backyard. Another wall just a sliding glass door. A separate entrance, or exit, depending on how you wanna look at it. And that lets out to a screened in porch, patio, whatever. The heavy green carpet and beaten up drapes I can do without, but it’s a small price to pay for the freedom I have to leave when I want without Harry ever knowing about it.