(I know that today is May 4th, and I don’t celebrate.)
With everything going on in my life, and there is a lot, nothing awful is happening, I’m just very busy. As such, I don’t have a ton of time to sit around and watch football. This weekend especially, as me and my family were jammed packed with events. I am saying all of this because, I didn’t have time to watch Tottenham play on Sunday. Sort of…
With all of the running around I had to do on Sunday, I didn’t think I’d be home in time to watch the match, but as luck would have it, I got home which allowed me to watch the last fifteen minutes of the game. This means that I was first shocked to see Tottenham ahead by tow goals. Then I watched Aston Villa score a goal, and the affect was that I thought Spurs were about to lose, only to actually watch Tottenham win.
They won a match.
They aren’t in 18th place anymore.
I have a little hope.
I am also aware of how much of a huge mistake “hope” is.
I decide the best course of action was to start watching Ted Lasso again.
I had the hardest time coming up with a solid opening paragraph for this review of Kara Melissa’s non-fiction piece “They Only Come Out at Night.” I like to think that I’m good at introductions, but not this time. The issue I am having is how I can’t wrap my arms around this essay to find one single starting point to explain how this honest, interwoven, melancholic story affected me.
From the first paragraph, Melissa pulled me in with an intense honesty; confidant in its story telling. Not for shock value, nor did this feel like oversharing, or a performative confession. This was a clear declaration of deep emotions, fully self-aware that maybe some people wouldn’t understand this situation, but it was true.
What follows are three tangents, platted together with connecting themes of MRI’s, hospitals, logic, brain function, and most importantly love; the compassion, empathy and longings which form in situations Melissa finds herself in. Through all of it, I felt this wrap of a happy melancholy resignation to it all. I wish I could explain that better, but it’s what I feel someone who has loved deeply, and lost greatly would feel towards the world.
I relished how the essay is presented straight forward and logical – The descriptions of medical treatments, aliments, and the causes. The setting is during the Covid lockdowns, and with the clinical narrative, Melissa creates a feeling of isolation and detachment. This makes her desire for connection, understanding, and compassion all the more pertinent.
I don’t want to belabor this review, as I am purposefully not going into all the details of the essay, because you should go read it. But I will say that the last section left me with a wonderful feeling of hopefulness. That even in the darkness, when we feel lost, that the love we have for each other can carry us through. With everything going on, I needed to be reminded of that fact.
And then I read something that just floors me. Like, pulls at me in a way, like my breath is being evacuated from my body. That a piece of writing can use words and language in a way that plays like a delicate symphony in my mind, but at the same time has a weight, and honesty, and a brutal truth to it that just crushes me in the best possible way. In 400+ words, Francesca Leader crafted a mini triumph with “Let Me Try to Make It Interesting.”
The piece does have a content warning, as the story deals with sexual assault. The narrator, from the beginning, believes that her story would “bore” us, so she goes on to describe the abuse in a metaphorical way. The vividness of the imagery that Leader creates does a disturbingly excellent job of incapsulating the violence, but especially the emotional toll on the narrator. I couldn’t shake the thought that the narrator felt she needed to create this imagery because of how sexual assault is not taken as seriously as it should be; that the truth still didn’t carry enough weight to it. Yet, this story does have a journey to it, a path the narrator follows, which leads to a conclusion that is neither preachy, nor cliché.
“Let Me Try to Make It Interesting” is a very good and serious piece, crafted by the very talented Francesca Leader. This is one of the best flash pieces that I have read in a very long time, not only for the subject matter, but because Leader used the flash fiction format to its fullest. I am still taken aback that in 400+ words she created such a complete story that left an impact while also being hopeful. It’s just impressive.
If you or anyone you know is being sexually assaulted, help is available at https://www.rainn.org and also by calling 1-800-656-4673.
RAINN is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization.
RAINN created and operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline in partnership with more than 1,000 local sexual assault service providers across the country.
