What We Tried to Bury Grows Here

“Looking at the faces, they speak to her. Don’t think you’re different, they say. Trust us, they’ll hunt you to the world’s end. We, too, wanted to live a good life, but how can you when they keep you from living with dignity? Freedom, that is all that matters.” Julian Zabalbeascoa’s stories have been published or will appear in American Short Fiction, The Common, Copper Nickel, Electric Literature’s The Commuter, The Gettysburg Review, Glimmer Train, Shenandoah, and other places. He is a visiting professor in the Honors College at the University Massachusetts Lowell and lives in Boston, Mass.