Bandicoot Summer (Rhea Dhanbhoora)

There was a summer when big bandicoots took over.

The same summer they took over you said we were better together, the summer we lived together, the summer we bought a hamster, the summer I wore my cheap metal washer, my engagement ring.

The summer the big bandicoots took over you said we were better together, we could survive anything. The same summer, the big bandicoots pissed in all the stagnant water.

The summer the big bandicoots took over, no one called the exterminator and you said we could survive anything. All summer, we hopped over the big bandicoots that took over, I wore my cheap metal washer engagement ring and we were better together. All summer the big bandicoots pissed in stagnant water and all summer we hopped over the big bandicoots to avoid the stagnant water they pissed in.

The same summer you said we were better together, you said we were no longer better together so we share custody of the hamster and I no longer wear my cheap metal washer.

The same summer we survived the big bandicoots that took over, you said we were no longer better together and so we no longer were.

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Rhea Dhanbhoora worked for close to a decade as Editor and Writer in print and digital content for a variety of clients, before quitting her job and moving to New York to get her master’s degree, and finally writing the stories everyone told her no one would ever read. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming in publications such as The Hindu, Quint, The Apeiron Review, Sparkle & Blink, Five on the Fifth, Capsule Stories, Fly on the Wall Press, HrStry, Artsy, Broccoli Mag, and JMWW. She’s currently on the Board of Directors for the literary organization, Quiet Lightning, and Editor of RealBrownTalk. She’s working on several projects, among which is a linked story collection about women based in the underrepresented Parsi Zoroastrian diaspora.

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image: Alan Tenhoeve