Transubstantiation for Beginners Magic glides through me, a black velvet painting fuzzed into the static of my archived life. I knew him when I was wild as daisies. He was my grandmother’s Labrador Retriever. Black as a lake in the moonlight, I spent hours drowning in him.  He was my first dog, though he wasn’t mine. It’s so hard to love something that will never fully be yours, but it’s the only way to love anyone. Be overtaken, drown a little.  ... Grandmother’s organ rides

We went to her wedding on Wednesday, then her funeral the following Friday. We’d never seen her so happy—so joyously carefree—scattering smiles like petals down the aisle. From two brides to one widow…no one knew what to say. Death was a coat of paint that hadn’t dried, just applied. We went from boisterous bells to stifling silence; none of us knew consolations could come so soon after congratulations. A union established and expired in the time it takes to pass through the