Rich Youmans

Maya

Nicolette never stops talking about her daughter. Maya is 18 and a freshman in college, she tells friends who stop by with casseroles and soups. Maya is studying to be an engineer—one day she’ll build skyscrapers and highways, maybe whole cities. Maya is on the dean’s list. Again. Nicolette’s friends look at each other. Oh yes, Nicolette says, Maya studies very hard. Maybe too hard—she can get so intense, worrying about her grades. She does like to get out, though, Nicolette says. Maya likes to go for drives in her convertible, to unwind and feel her hair blowing free—her tangerine-dyed hair. Can you imagine? Oh, to be young again. Nicolette laughs, a sound like twisting metal. Her friends nod and look at the floor. Maya likes to drive along the river, Nicolette tells them, especially at night when she says the water is flowing with starlight. Sometimes, Maya turns onto the bridge to the next town and stops in the middle of it. That’s when she says she feels happiest, as if suspended in time—no past, no present—and never wants to get to the other side. Nicolette shakes her head and smiles. Her friends’ eyes widen. Maya needs to slow down, Nicolette says, her smile tightening. Maya is so bright but so young. She’s just 18. Nicolette says this as if trying to believe it herself, and her voice starts to tremble. She’s just 18.

headstone
between the dates
riversound

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About the Author

Rich Youmans lives on Cape Cod with his wife, Alice. He published his first haibun in 1994 and, decades later, is still at it. His books include All the Windows Lit (Snapshot Press, 2017) and Head-On (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2018). He is also the co-author, with Roberta Beary and Lew Watts, of Haibun: A Writer’s Guide (Ad Hoc Fiction, 2023).

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