3:10 AM

I woke up at 3:10. As Melody Moezzi says it's a gift. "4:30 a.m. Some people call this “inspiration;” I call it a miracle." I lay in bed thinking about creepy Kaplan, my 9th grade science teacher who brought a python to school in a pillowcase. He wrapped the slow moving snake around his neck and sat in front of the class, with his hands behind his head he rocked back on his chair and waited for us to settle down. He had small stubby hands and his froggy blue-green elbows were poking out of his short sleeved shirt. It must've been springtime. He looked just like the frogs we dissected in biology. But I love frogs. I detested Kaplan. Then when we all were seated he walked around the room so willing students could pet the python. I thought the whole thing was perverse and kept my hands secured under my thighs. He can't be married, I thought. He lives alone with a snake. He is a snake.

Then I thought about my rollerskating in our dining room on the red tile floor when I was two and a half or three. The house was tiny and adorable. The man who designed the logo for Morton Salt, When it rains, it pours lived there before us. A good omen. I am obsessed with umbrellas and illustration. After visiting the whole house in my earliest memories I remembered the earliest abuse from my mother that took place in this house. Then I knew it was time to get up.