My Deal Me In deck turned up spades this week, which means Daily Science Fiction, but Tammy Breitweiser recommended the following story, so I read that, instead.

“1,000-Year-Old Ghosts”

by Laura Chow Reeve

The reference, of course, is to making 1,000-year-old eggs. In this case, the women are pickling memories. Unlike the usual metaphor of preserving, this pickling packs the memories away so they can be forgotten.

There are two narratives going on here, one in plain text and one in italics, and three women. You aren’t certain until late in the story whose narrative the italics belong to. This uncertainty isn’t A Bad Thing, it’s A Good Thing.

I loved the tensions between the woman who wanted to forget her roots, the one who wanted to forget her lack of roots, and the one who wanted to forget nothing.

This piece packs lots of punch. It’s like somebody took all of Amy Tan’s books and distilled them into one very short story.

Highly recommended, and THANK YOU, TAMMY!