The Sleepover

SO excited was she to be at Fatima’s for her first sleepover, Olivia barely flinched when her mother left. But after gymnastics in Fatima’s backyard and hours watching TV and eating the best kinds of wrong food, Olivia felt the first twinge of dislocation. Later, after Fatima fell asleep mid-sentence, Olivia lay wide-eyed on a trundle bed and catalogued unfamiliar sights, sounds and smells. Then the lights went out and Olivia saw that the glowing decal stars on Fatima’s ceiling formed a constellation entirely foreign to her. Her eyes welled. She was further from home than she thought.