A short story of mine has just been published. It was inspired by the drawing, Blue Dove, by Picasso (see image). It was begun many years ago and went through revisions until it was ready to fly.

It's an honor to be included in this journal, The Quarterly, out of Santa Fe, whose pieces I always like. I can't seem to find anything like them anywhere else.

Way to go, Santa Fe!

Here's an excerpt:

At dusk I liked to sit out on the front stoop of my building and watch the people coming and going. Betty Amurrio’s cousins hung out in front, too, in the parking lot, listening to salsa blaring from their lowrider. I liked the graceful way they gestured at each other, slapped hands, and glanced around to see if they were being admired, at times adjusting their jeans hanging low on their slim hips or running their hands over their stubbly short hair. On warm evenings they wore their white t-shirts pulled up high on their hairless chests, exposing their flat stomachs and puffed chests with the alert, fearful glances of doves.

I was the only gringa in the neighborhood, and my neighbors took an interest in me for that reason alone. But Betty was different. Unlike other immigrant neighbors who came to me in desperation—asking for help finding people to hire them who wouldn’t care about green cards or immigration—she never asked for my help finding work. Instead, the night we met in the laundry room she talked about the miracle and the fortune teller “with nails like long, red knives” who read her palm and told her she’d go to America to seek her fortune. She shrugged and laughed as if to say, Why wouldn’t everyone want to be so lucky?

To read the rest of this story and other writing in The Quarterly, go to:

http://sfwp.com/blue-dove-by-marjorie-robertson/

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