Immediate Family

It is the day of her brother’s wedding, and our narrator is struggling. Despite a recent fracture between them, her brother Danny has asked her to give a speech. She doesn’t know where to begin: how to put words to their kind of love? She was nine years old when she travelled with her parents to Thailand to meet him, six years her junior. The pair grew up together like any other siblings and their childhood in northern California was a happy one. Yet when she holds their story up to the light, it refracts in ways she doesn’t expect. What follows is a heartfelt letter addressed to Danny, an attempt at a full accounting of their years growing up and an exploration of the distance now between them. As the time left until the wedding ticks down, she uncovers the words that can’t and won’t be said aloud.