The Centifictionist

It was the time he didn’t want to wear the bow tie and wool jacket, an oversized hand-me-down from our cousin. It was the time he started going through his days in a trance, out of the house before sunrise, our dog Pepper at his heels, not returning until after dinner. It was the time I last heard his bullfrog laugh. It was the time of rebirth, Easter, the time Mother and Daddy decided we all needed to go to church to pray the queerness out of my brother Wes.

Kim Steutermann Rogers spent a month in Alaska as the inaugural fellow at Storyknife Writers Retreat. She was recognized for “Notable Travel Writing 2019” in Best American Travel Writing. Her science journalism has been published in National Geographic, Audubon, and Smithsonian; and her prose in or forthcoming from Bending Genres, Emerge Literary Journal, and Flash Flood. She lives with her husband and dog in Hawaii. Read more of her work at kimsrogers.com and follow her on social media at @kimsrogers.