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Overhoard

March 18, 2020/ Judy Xie

[creative nonfiction]

I am here, breathing

heavy into one end of the receiver,

in order to reassure you.

I am here,

on one end, breathing.

 

“Where are you?”

 

The phone clicks shut.

*     *     *

On nights like this, I’ll watch Hoarders to learn/unlearn empathy (for my mother). I love them, I cry with them, and I think I understand. Sitting criss-crossed in a pile of clothes, I fix ramen, wait (for you) to come home. The kettle whistles with the opening credits. When you do make it to the door—my graduation, my burial, all of it—we’ll stare at each other, from all the way across the room, our eyes calloused. The clutter, between us, will move like shadows.

Of that, I am certain.

121 episodes later, I am vacuuming the living room floor. I have moved the bags of clothes behind the sofa, into the attic. You find the closets are bursting. Like the closets, you are too. You cannot find that dress, the one with the flowers, there are so many. You open the big trunks in the attic and start to go through the years; fingers digging down through the floor, the bedrooms below, the living room collapses, the kitchen, and deeper still, into the hours and the days and the seconds, my childhood, until you have gone through everything. The sofa is unturned in your hands. Your eyes glistening, the fat tears rolling down into the folds. Mother, there is a difference between impulsive buying and desperate keeping. Do these clothes even know how complicated they are?

“Take it. Take the useless dress.” My arms spread wide—the room/the mess behind me. A single breath escapes, a trembling staccato.

“You have no idea what matters,” my mother’s voice hardening.

Judy Xie’s writing has been nationally recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, Rider University, Ringling College of Art and Design, and the Festival of Books. She attends Mountain Lakes High School in New Jersey but will be attending Columbia University next fall. She has been published in Polyphony Lit, Columbia Journal, Into the Void, and Noble / Gas Qrtly, among others. However, she is most known for consisting of at least 50% ice cream.

School Lunch Archive

  • 2021
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Friday Lunch Blog

Friday Lunch! A serving of contemporary essays published every Friday.

Today’s course:

Diagnosed at Sixty – My ADHD Journey

April 22, 2022/in Blog / Kait Leonard
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Why Video Game Preservation Matters

April 15, 2022/in Blog / Nicholas Galvez
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Sarees in America

April 1, 2022/in Blog / Majella Pinto
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Midnight Snack

A destination for all your late night obsessions.

Tonight’s bites:

QVC-land

May 6, 2022/in Midnight Snack / D. E. Hardy
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Escape Artists at the End of the World

April 29, 2022/in Midnight Snack / Lisa Levy
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The House in the Middle

April 15, 2022/in Midnight Snack / Megan Vasquez
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More coming soon!

Amuse-Bouche

Little bites every Monday to whet your appetite!

Today’s plate:

Antigone in NYC

May 2, 2022/in Amuse-Bouche, Poetry / Ann Pedone
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Slackers Rule

April 26, 2022/in Amuse-Bouche / Karen Regen-Tuero
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https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/erik-hansman-PL5VrlAISt4-unsplash-scaled.jpg 1706 2560 Karen Regen-Tuero https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Karen Regen-Tuero2022-04-26 16:08:292022-04-26 16:08:29Slackers Rule

Ownership Records

March 28, 2022/in Amuse-Bouche / Lucy Zhang
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https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/james-fitzgerald-2XlWpFPzsdc-unsplash-scaled.jpg 2560 1707 Lucy Zhang https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Lucy Zhang2022-03-28 11:55:502022-03-27 19:38:27Ownership Records

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Word From the Editor

Here at Lunch Ticket, 2021 represents ten years of our literary journal. 2021 marks the start of a new decade, one I can only hope will stand as tall and iconic in the history of our publication as the jazz age in America. What we’ve put together this fall is what I call and will fondly remember as our “Roaring 20th Issue”.

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