{"id":21060,"date":"2025-10-27T17:37:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T22:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/?p=21060"},"modified":"2025-10-31T12:28:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T17:28:21","slug":"skin-contact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/skin-contact\/","title":{"rendered":"Skin Contact"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-social-links is-content-justification-right is-layout-flex wp-container-core-social-links-is-layout-765c4724 wp-block-social-links-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"wp-social-link wp-social-link-facebook  wp-block-social-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=61556140010887\" class=\"wp-block-social-link-anchor\"><svg width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.1\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M12 2C6.5 2 2 6.5 2 12c0 5 3.7 9.1 8.4 9.9v-7H7.9V12h2.5V9.8c0-2.5 1.5-3.9 3.8-3.9 1.1 0 2.2.2 2.2.2v2.5h-1.3c-1.2 0-1.6.8-1.6 1.6V12h2.8l-.4 2.9h-2.3v7C18.3 21.1 22 17 22 12c0-5.5-4.5-10-10-10z\"><\/path><\/svg><span class=\"wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n<li class=\"wp-social-link wp-social-link-instagram  wp-block-social-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/boudin_mcneese\/\" class=\"wp-block-social-link-anchor\"><svg width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.1\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M12,4.622c2.403,0,2.688,0.009,3.637,0.052c0.877,0.04,1.354,0.187,1.671,0.31c0.42,0.163,0.72,0.358,1.035,0.673 c0.315,0.315,0.51,0.615,0.673,1.035c0.123,0.317,0.27,0.794,0.31,1.671c0.043,0.949,0.052,1.234,0.052,3.637 s-0.009,2.688-0.052,3.637c-0.04,0.877-0.187,1.354-0.31,1.671c-0.163,0.42-0.358,0.72-0.673,1.035 c-0.315,0.315-0.615,0.51-1.035,0.673c-0.317,0.123-0.794,0.27-1.671,0.31c-0.949,0.043-1.233,0.052-3.637,0.052 s-2.688-0.009-3.637-0.052c-0.877-0.04-1.354-0.187-1.671-0.31c-0.42-0.163-0.72-0.358-1.035-0.673 c-0.315-0.315-0.51-0.615-0.673-1.035c-0.123-0.317-0.27-0.794-0.31-1.671C4.631,14.688,4.622,14.403,4.622,12 s0.009-2.688,0.052-3.637c0.04-0.877,0.187-1.354,0.31-1.671c0.163-0.42,0.358-0.72,0.673-1.035 c0.315-0.315,0.615-0.51,1.035-0.673c0.317-0.123,0.794-0.27,1.671-0.31C9.312,4.631,9.597,4.622,12,4.622 M12,3 C9.556,3,9.249,3.01,8.289,3.054C7.331,3.098,6.677,3.25,6.105,3.472C5.513,3.702,5.011,4.01,4.511,4.511 c-0.5,0.5-0.808,1.002-1.038,1.594C3.25,6.677,3.098,7.331,3.054,8.289C3.01,9.249,3,9.556,3,12c0,2.444,0.01,2.751,0.054,3.711 c0.044,0.958,0.196,1.612,0.418,2.185c0.23,0.592,0.538,1.094,1.038,1.594c0.5,0.5,1.002,0.808,1.594,1.038 c0.572,0.222,1.227,0.375,2.185,0.418C9.249,20.99,9.556,21,12,21s2.751-0.01,3.711-0.054c0.958-0.044,1.612-0.196,2.185-0.418 c0.592-0.23,1.094-0.538,1.594-1.038c0.5-0.5,0.808-1.002,1.038-1.594c0.222-0.572,0.375-1.227,0.418-2.185 C20.99,14.751,21,14.444,21,12s-0.01-2.751-0.054-3.711c-0.044-0.958-0.196-1.612-0.418-2.185c-0.23-0.592-0.538-1.094-1.038-1.594 c-0.5-0.5-1.002-0.808-1.594-1.038c-0.572-0.222-1.227-0.375-2.185-0.418C14.751,3.01,14.444,3,12,3L12,3z M12,7.378 c-2.552,0-4.622,2.069-4.622,4.622S9.448,16.622,12,16.622s4.622-2.069,4.622-4.622S14.552,7.378,12,7.378z M12,15 c-1.657,0-3-1.343-3-3s1.343-3,3-3s3,1.343,3,3S13.657,15,12,15z M16.804,6.116c-0.596,0-1.08,0.484-1.08,1.08 s0.484,1.08,1.08,1.08c0.596,0,1.08-0.484,1.08-1.08S17.401,6.116,16.804,6.116z\"><\/path><\/svg><span class=\"wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text\">Instagram<\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>Skin Contact<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Zachary Bos<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The deep ravine slashes through the Pennsylvania woods like a wet, stony wound. Halting her hike along the narrow streambed, Valeria Calder\u00f3n tugs her bandana back into position. She squints to see where to step among the tumbled rocks and clumps of sedge and catbrier. Her summer research assistant Rowan Kaur catches up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cShould we be checking these?\u201d Rowan asks, indicating the pockets of water pooled in the sediment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Val nods her head. \u201cNo. They\u2019re not stream species. Too risky with the runoff and unpredictable water flow. We\u2019re looking for safe, moist crevices and cover.\u201d She points to a shelf of rock. \u201cLet us hunt our sally prey up there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cSally forth?\u201d Rowan asks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cJawohl! Let\u2019s get to work.\u201d Val keeps it light-hearted in the field to prevent the long days of collecting from turning sour. Besides, it\u2019s important to build camaraderie with the interns. Especially Rowan. They were sharp and eager, but Val could see that weight on Rowan\u2019s shoulders, the kind you get when you\u2019re too used to being looked at sideways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">She remembered the first time someone called her \u2018a diversity hire.\u2019 Kept her head up, smiled through it. Sometimes she saw that same tension in Rowan \u2014 always bracing for judgment. Now the world seemed to be closing in even tighter on people like Rowan, and Val felt protective. Jokes were her way of saying, <em>Hey, I see you.<\/em> <em>I\u2019m here with you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Rowan wipes their hands on their cargo shorts. Water drips onto their heads from dangling roots. \u201cTell me the numbers, Val. How many salamanders do I need to find before Professor Tom will write me a good recommendation? Six million? Seven?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Val shrugs, driving her trowel into a fissure packed with loose stone. \u201cIf there\u2019s even still money for grad school. Who knows? I\u2019m a postdoc, not a prophet. Climate funding\u2019s gutted. Can\u2019t research what they say isn\u2019t happening.\u201d She flicks her hand at the ferns studding the rock face, each circular sub-frond bright and waxy. \u201cTen years ago, you wouldn\u2019t find crimson spleenwort this far north. Everything\u2019s shifting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Rowan nods. \u201cWe\u2019ve got armadillos in New Jersey now. Seriously. In <em>Cranford<\/em>. They\u2019re digging up people\u2019s yards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cHold that thought.\u201d Val crouches, levering up a slab of schist with her trowel. Beneath it, two thick-bodied salamanders lay curled like mottled apostrophes, dark against the sepia mud. \u201cBehold! We\u2019ve found their hidden lair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Val turned on her lecturer mode. \u201cThey\u2019re like Ambystoma, kleptogenetic, right? Stealing genes from whatever males they mate with. They tuck away that chromosomal material like a blue jay hiding nuts in a hollow tree. Saving something for later. Some individuals haul around triploid, tetraploid, even pentaploid genomes. Walking larders full of purloined DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Rowan reaches down. \u201cWhoa, don\u2019t touch!\u201d Val barks, but it\u2019s too late \u2014 Rowan\u2019s fingertip brushes the slick back of one. The animal flicks back and forth spasmodically, and Rowan jerks their hand away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Val sighs. \u201cRow, mi amigue. Do we have to talk about field safety again? Zoonotic transmission is real. Like armadillos, right? They carry ze leprozee. You\u2019ve got to be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cSorry! Guess I\u2019m more of a hands-on learner,\u201d Rowan says with a chastened grin. \u201cOw.\u201d They inspect their finger where a line of red is seeping from what looks like a papercut and try to rub the sting away on the flap of their shirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cWash that out! No cellulitis on my watch,\u201d Val chides. She pulls a headlamp from her pocket and leans against the ravine wall to bring her face level with the animals. \u201cOkay, so it looks like one is deceased. It is\u2026 no more. It has\u2026 ceased to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Rowan groans at the dated references to Monty Python and continues to soap up at the shallow stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Under examination, the living salamander\u2019s gold-flecked eye glistens in the light. Then Val freezes. On either side of the creature\u2019s throat, two smaller mouths are opening and closing, as if breathing. \u201cDios m\u00edo.\u201d She excitedly digs through her backpack. \u201cWe\u2019re cutting open the dead parrot,\u201d she announces. \u201cRow, notebooks out. This is not a drill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">She finds the portable dissection tray, sets it down on a flat boulder, and begins, slicing carefully through the soft throat. Pleated mucosal membranes fill the auxiliary mouths. As Val uses her pencil tip to probe the soft folds, she mutters to herself. \u201cNot paedomorphic. Not <em>gill<\/em> tissue. Carajo, do they even <em>have<\/em> an aquatic stage?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Rowan is rubbing their hand. \u201c<em>Ow<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201c\u2026 maybe over-development of the mucosal lining? Rowan, <em>look<\/em>. Adductor bundles, subarticular. No <em>jaws, hmm. \u201c<\/em>Like the embryo tried for three heads but lost courage halfway through. \u2018Cerberus of the plethodontids\u2019, heh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Val writes in quick, urgent script as she mumbles distractedly. \u201c\u2026 developmental crossed wires from too many borrowed genomes? Inheritance from half a dozen different, hmm, parental sources, what does that do to embryonic patterning? Semi-expression, expression conflict, displaced expression\u2026 maybe fodder for, I don\u2019t know, ventilation adaptation? A broader range of temperature stress response?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cVal\u2026\u201d Rowan holds up their hand. The cut has split open wider. Another cleft appears on their palm and pulls apart into a red-rimmed gape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cRowan?\u201d Val looks up, her face blanching when she realizes her student\u2019s forearm is blossoming with mouths. Her trained mind enters diagnostic mode as she disassociates. <em>Stress-induced hyperplasia? A rapid-onset transmissible cancer? Or god, those stolen genes, gone feral and insinuating themselves across species barriers. Lateral, direct, forcible acquisition. If that\u2019s true\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">One of the mouths opens and emits a tiny, high-pitched sound. Another joins in, harmonizing. Rowan squeezes their fist, and the mouths pinch and pucker. The dazed undergrad reaches toward her. Val stumbles back. \u201c<em>No.<\/em> Don\u2019t touch me.\u201d She grabs the bottle hanging from her belt and smears sanitizer across her palms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Rowan sinks heavily onto the silt, transfixed by the thin sounds coming from their own skin. More singing seeps from cracks in the ravine wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Val shoves her notebook into her pack and backs away, keeping her eyes on Rowan. \u201cI\u2019ve got to go get someone. There\u2019s no cell service here. Stay <em>put<\/em>. Don\u2019t touch anything. I\u2019ll be back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201c<em>Val<\/em> \u2014 <em>please<\/em> \u2014 \u201d Rowan sobs, repeating Val\u2019s name, the eerie voices take turns whimpering in unison with them. Val\u2019s chest clenches, torn between reaching out and running, but instinct takes over and her legs are already moving. She backtracks upstream, forcing herself to walk, not run, over the break-bone detritus. A twisted ankle could mean never getting out. Never getting help. Her footsteps crunch on gravel. Her heartbeat thrums in her ears and beneath it, she hears the faint chorus from the ravine chasing after her like a spectral dirge. \u201c<em>This is real<\/em>,\u201d she whispers with resolve, breath catching on each word. <em>\u201cReal.Real. Real.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Zachary Bos<\/strong> is a writer, poet, and translator based in Massachusetts. His bylines have appeared in <em>Iowa Review<\/em>, <em>Bellevue Literary Review<\/em>, <em>Fulcrum<\/em>, <em>Bosphorus Review of Books<\/em>, and elsewhere. He directs Pen &amp; Anvil Press and works as a bookseller and union organizer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>__________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"438\" height=\"211\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/01\/boudin-logo-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15484\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/01\/boudin-logo-1.jpg 438w, https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/01\/boudin-logo-1-300x145.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 438px) 100vw, 438px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-large-font-size\">&lt;&lt; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/rosemount-manor\/\">Back<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/a-capital-idea\/\">Next<\/a> &gt;&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">To learn more about submitting your work to <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/boudin-submissions\/\">Boudin<\/a><\/em> or applying to McNeese State University&#8217;s Creative Writing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/mfa-application-submissions\/\">MFA program<\/a>, please visit Submissions for details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Skin Contact Zachary Bos __________ The deep ravine slashes through the Pennsylvania woods like a wet, stony wound. Halting her hike along the narrow streambed, Valeria Calder\u00f3n tugs her bandana back into position. She squints to see where to step among the tumbled rocks and clumps of sedge and catbrier. Her summer research assistant Rowan&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[241],"tags":[75,146,26],"class_list":["post-21060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boodin-the-ticking-clock-oct-25","tag-boudin","tag-fiction-2","tag-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21060","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=21060"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21230,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21060\/revisions\/21230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}