By Mary Guterson
The day was not going as planned. But then, she realized, she’d forgotten to make a plan, so there was no use blaming the day for the way things were going. She had only herself to blame, which is what she said to herself when she looked in the mirror and saw that her bangs were too long. She pulled the scissors from the scissors jar and said to herself, do not cut your bangs, and with this magical incantation, she began to trim. Each snip felt right and correct and led to the next snip that also felt right and correct and so she continued, snipping and feeling right and correct until there came a snip that was a snip too far. And then another snip to try to fix the one wrong snip. And so on. This is the story that has repeated itself over and over for all of her life in many variations and she sees no reason to believe it will end until she is dead.
Mary Guterson’s published work includes novels, short stories, poems, and magazine articles. She lives in Los Angeles.
