‘be careful it’s raining’ It is Marta’s mantra. The words are spray-prainted on an umbrella her roommates made for her while she was juggling five lovers. At first Kim had tried to Sharpie the mantra onto an actual condom. Epic fail. They all howled with laughter sitting around the aqua blue table in their sunny yellow Los Angeles kitchen. Marta never gets to use it but she loves that fucking umbrella.
Marta thrills every time they call out ‘be careful it’s raining’ to each other. Safe sex is important but they don’t know the double meaning for Marta. Every time she sings it out it makes her stronger and more independent from her worrying mother a thousand miles away. When Marta left at fourteen her mother added earthquakes to her list of worries. She told her mother that the chances of an earthquake killing her were less than getting hit by a car. Her mother went silent for so long Marta thought the calling card had run out of minutes. She cursed herself for forgetting that is exactly how her mother lost her grandparents. Heavy rains and an out of control delivery truck. Marta’s grandmother never goes out in the rain and her mother never learned to drive a car. Marta didn’t pack what she didn’t need when she came to America, she would find new fears in her new home.
8 min in bed, 2.23.13. inspired by an anecdote at dinner with N.W. and O.M.M.
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