{"id":15241,"date":"2024-01-12T16:45:10","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T22:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/?p=15241"},"modified":"2024-03-10T16:27:22","modified_gmt":"2024-03-10T21:27:22","slug":"stump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/2024\/01\/12\/stump\/","title":{"rendered":"Stump"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stump<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sudha<\/strong> Balagopal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

__________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I discover the collapsed saguaro in our yard on the day my daughter, Pia, must leave for college. The thirty-foot cactus lies splayed across desert landscaping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cactus wrens nested inside the saguaro. The gooey insides of their eggs now stick to weeds, shell fragments spread, scattered like confetti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We loaded the car the night before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pia presses the car’s horn, yells, \u201cHurry up!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow do I clear this?\u201d I ask Pia. \u201cLook at the thorny spines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pia’s texting in the passenger seat. \u201cHuh?\u201d Her thumbs pause their rapid-dance. \u201cMom, my roommate’s already there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDidn’t someone say saguaros are protected?\u201d I ask as I drive. \u201cWould I be breaking the law if I clear the mess?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat damn thing just fell.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut they won’t know that.\u201d I have no idea who \u201cthey\u201d are. \u201cWe’ve had too much unexpected rain for the poor saguaro.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWill you stop fretting?\u201d Pia throws the phone into her bag. \u201cThe birds made holes for nests inside the saguaro and they weakened the old cactus. It fell. End of story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bird droppings map my windshield. \u201cThose eggs could’ve hatched. Poor parents. No babies, no home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBirds will find homes elsewhere.\u201d Pia says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside her dorm room, my chest tightens. I want to linger over lunch, ice-cream, unpacking. I want to make her bed with the brand-new sheets, set out photos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She’s already making plans to get coffee with her new roommate. I give Pia a quick hug. She doesn’t like long goodbyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I return home, there’s a business card on my doorstep: Jose, The Yard Guy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jose slices the cactus into chunks, uses long tongs to lift and place them in his truck. \u201cThe roots are too strong. This is as far as I can get.\u201d He points to the stump when he’s done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After he leaves, I sit on the stub, hug my arms in the emptiness, a confetti of eggshells at my feet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

__________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sudha Balagopal’s<\/strong><\/a> writing appears in CRAFT<\/em>, Split Lip<\/em>, and Smokelong Quarterly<\/em> among other journals. Her novella-in-flash, Things I Can’t Tell Amma<\/em>, was published by Ad Hoc Fiction<\/em> in 2021. Her full-length flash collection is forthcoming from Alternating Current Press<\/em> in 2024. She has had stories included in Best Microfiction<\/em>, Best Small Fictions <\/em>and The<\/em> Wigleaf Top 50<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

__________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

To learn more about submitting your work to Boudin<\/a><\/em> or applying to McNeese State University’s Creative Writing MFA program<\/a>, please visit Submissions for details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stump Sudha Balagopal __________ I discover the collapsed saguaro in our yard on the day my daughter, Pia, must leave for college. The thirty-foot cactus lies splayed across desert landscaping.  Cactus wrens nested inside the saguaro. The gooey insides of their eggs now stick to weeds, shell fragments spread, scattered like confetti. We loaded the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[191],"tags":[75,100,101,26],"class_list":["post-15241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-flash-spice-of-life-jan-24","tag-boudin","tag-flashfiction","tag-microfiction","tag-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15241"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15555,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15241\/revisions\/15555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}