We moved to the coast seeking calm. Emily lasted two months. She’s staying with family now in Ohio.

I stay awake nights, with no one to talk to about the fierce ocean and seagulls the size of cocker spaniels. Eating Cheetos, playing Tetris, synapses fire. Expectant neurons, ravenous, demand more.

Judith Shapiro is a writer who recently moved to the other coast, where she marvels at the sun that sets instead of rising. When the novel she’s writing looks the other way, she secretly writes flash fiction. See her newest stories in the March issue of Blink Ink.