“She wonders what curse this is, to swing from life to life, grief to grief, with no control.”

“I’d hear this man’s footsteps above me when in bed, trying to trap the sound of his feet with my eyes…”

“I laugh too even though I wonder if we all know it isn’t funny, and if so, why it is that we’re laughing still?”

“Kane double-parks the Purity Supreme van and I can’t help but notice how conspicuous it is."

"Friendship affords certitude above all, and that is what distinguishes it from love."

“She walks into McDonald’s at 1:00 p.m. She carries two duffel bags and an empty coffee cup as if hoping for a refill. No one knows why, but she comes every day like clockwork.”

“The girl with the plated necklace does not want to hurt Becca by being the first to relay news of infidelity but she does so anyhow.”

I’ve figured out other things too, things that would be obvious to anyone but me, like how those friends weren’t really my friends. They were Buddy’s. And going our own ways would feel like nothing.

Pingmei Lan’s short story, “Cicadas and the Dead Chairman,” which appeared in Epiphany’s Fall/Winter 2018 issue, has been named a winner of the prestigious PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize.