WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.290 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.290 --> 00:00:02.940 align:middle line:90%
"August."

00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:06.090 align:middle line:84%
"My sister painted
her nails fuchsia,

00:00:06.090 --> 00:00:09.690 align:middle line:90%
a color named after a fruit.

00:00:09.690 --> 00:00:13.110 align:middle line:84%
All the colors were
named after foods--

00:00:13.110 --> 00:00:17.670 align:middle line:90%
coffee frost, tangerine sherbet.

00:00:17.670 --> 00:00:21.990 align:middle line:84%
We sat in the backyard waiting
for our lives to resume,

00:00:21.990 --> 00:00:24.960 align:middle line:90%
the ascent summer interrupted.

00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:31.710 align:middle line:84%
Triumphs, victories, for which
school was a kind of practice.

00:00:31.710 --> 00:00:36.660 align:middle line:84%
The teachers smiled down at us
pinning on the blue ribbons,

00:00:36.660 --> 00:00:42.880 align:middle line:84%
and in our heads, we smiled
down at the teachers.

00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:47.370 align:middle line:84%
Our lives were
stored in our heads.

00:00:47.370 --> 00:00:49.320 align:middle line:90%
They hadn't begun.

00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:52.860 align:middle line:84%
We were both sure we'd
know when they did.

00:00:52.860 --> 00:00:56.040 align:middle line:90%
They certainly weren't this.

00:00:56.040 --> 00:00:59.610 align:middle line:84%
We sat in the backyard
watching our bodies change.

00:00:59.610 --> 00:01:02.880 align:middle line:90%
First, bright pink, then tan.

00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:06.120 align:middle line:84%
I dribbled baby oil
on my legs, my sister

00:01:06.120 --> 00:01:12.180 align:middle line:84%
rubbed polish remover on her
left hand, tried another color.

00:01:12.180 --> 00:01:16.170 align:middle line:84%
We read, we listened
to the portable radio.

00:01:16.170 --> 00:01:18.150 align:middle line:90%
Obviously, this wasn't life--

00:01:18.150 --> 00:01:23.100 align:middle line:84%
this sitting around in
colored lawn chairs.

00:01:23.100 --> 00:01:26.160 align:middle line:84%
Nothing matched
up to the dreams.

00:01:26.160 --> 00:01:29.230 align:middle line:84%
My sister kept trying to
find a color she liked.

00:01:29.230 --> 00:01:31.950 align:middle line:84%
It was summer, they
were all frosted--

00:01:31.950 --> 00:01:35.640 align:middle line:84%
fuchsia, orange,
mother of pearl.

00:01:35.640 --> 00:01:38.190 align:middle line:84%
She held her left hand
in front of her eyes,

00:01:38.190 --> 00:01:41.160 align:middle line:90%
moved it from side to side.

00:01:41.160 --> 00:01:43.740 align:middle line:90%
Why was it always like this?

00:01:43.740 --> 00:01:48.630 align:middle line:84%
The color so intense in the
glass bottles, so distinct,

00:01:48.630 --> 00:01:51.990 align:middle line:84%
and on the hand,
almost exactly alike--

00:01:51.990 --> 00:01:55.740 align:middle line:90%
a film of weak silver.

00:01:55.740 --> 00:01:58.530 align:middle line:90%
My sister shook the bottle.

00:01:58.530 --> 00:02:01.800 align:middle line:84%
The orange kept sinking
to the bottom, maybe

00:02:01.800 --> 00:02:04.020 align:middle line:90%
that was the problem.

00:02:04.020 --> 00:02:07.000 align:middle line:84%
She shook it over and over
and held it up to the light,

00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:10.050 align:middle line:84%
just like the words
in a magazine.

00:02:10.050 --> 00:02:12.780 align:middle line:90%
The world, as if the tale--

00:02:12.780 --> 00:02:18.630 align:middle line:84%
a small thing not yet exactly
right, or like an afterthought,

00:02:18.630 --> 00:02:23.130 align:middle line:84%
somehow still crude
or approximate.

00:02:23.130 --> 00:02:27.030 align:middle line:90%
What was real was the idea.

00:02:27.030 --> 00:02:30.360 align:middle line:84%
My sister added a
coat, held her thumb

00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:32.760 align:middle line:90%
to the side of the bottle.

00:02:32.760 --> 00:02:35.670 align:middle line:84%
We kept thinking we
would see the gap narrow

00:02:35.670 --> 00:02:38.370 align:middle line:90%
though in fact, it persisted.

00:02:38.370 --> 00:02:41.790 align:middle line:84%
The more stubbornly
it persisted,

00:02:41.790 --> 00:02:45.320 align:middle line:90%
the more fiercely we believed."

00:02:45.320 --> 00:02:47.000 align:middle line:90%