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I needed to take a deep breath.

AN EMOTIONAL PREGNANCY BY AJIRI AKI 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 39

I realized that I needed to just take a deep breath, keep breathing, and try to live in my present. By breathing and being present in each moment is the only way to get me through these times. There are so many things out of my control and all my worry and stress is not actually bringing me closer to any solutions or alleviating my feelings. The only thing I can do is take each day as it comes.

Daddy liked to rev the engine to the beat of The House of the Rising Sun.

MY LIFE IN SCARS BY KW OXNARD 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 39

He screeched to a halt and my little head slammed into the dashboard so hard it split my forehead right open. He didn’t take me to the emergency room. We went to a pharmacy where a nice man helped Daddy patch me up with some iodine and a Band-Aid. When it healed it left a star. The good-girl star, because I didn’t tell Mama.

I don’t know what any of these people are thinking.

THE DJINN BY JAN ALEXANDER 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 39

Mark didn’t want to be in Kashgar at all. “I’m done with the travelogue. Let’s go ask about the bus. Goodbye Holiday Inn, hello toilet paper from your backpack.”

Suddenly he took a fish straight out of the hot molded griddle, wrapped it in a brown paper bag, and extended it towards Janie, “Here!”