Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders

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The southern contraction “yall”—plural of “you”—is most often written with an apostrophe. But I have dropped the apostrophe in this text for consistency. If we take “y’all” as a valid pronoun in its own right, it would be the only one that had one. As well, the multiple apostrophes it allows to worm their way into the possessive forms would be ludicrous. Thus I have omitted them.

[G] THROUGH THE SECOND-FLOOR Atlanta apartment screen, out by the streetlight in the July evening, crickets scritched. Inside, his dad’s floor lamp slid its gleam down along — and back along — the Bowflex bar’s matte gray.

Then, at eight-forty, Eric finished his workout. “Okay — I’m done!” Sitting up in his green gym pants, the elastic loose in one frayed cuff and a soiled yellow stripe each side, he swung his bare foot over and off the bench. “It’s all yours!” Standing, he stepped from the carpet swatch they’d used since the rubber mat split.

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