Noel Cheruto
(a finalist for the Aura Estrada Short Story Contest)
1. IN A LARGE BOWL, stir two cups of flour, one cup warm water, salt and sugar to taste. Add a spoonful of oil. Knead to a thick consistency. Knead slowly, feel the elasticity of the dough pull at your shoulders, down your spine, to your thighs. Your pale thighs spotted with blue-black patches of hurt. Wonder how it is that he hit you only in hidden places: above your knees, around your belly, under your armpits. Know, as you know night from day, that he spent all day every day thinking up new ways to torture you.