Throwback Thursday: ‘Vellum’ by Andrea Lewis

Elise has filed for divorce, so Todd decides to begin journaling, as recommended by his “Now That You Are Single” support group leader, and, despite hating many things about the support group, such as the woman who calls herself Ocean, wears dolphin earrings, and speaks from her root chakra about her past lives, and the plastic surgeon who sculpted perfect, spherical 34C breasts for his ex-wife before she took up with a dermatologist (She’s fucking her way to a full-body makeover), Todd still likes the idea of journaling, the idea of sitting on the tiny balcony of his new apartment with a glass of full-bodied merlot or one of those microbrews with undertones of hay, sage, and liquorice, relishing his newfound lone-wolf-on-the-prowl status and writing his reflections, aspirations and observations into a thick, substantial book, no, not to spite his soon-to-be-ex-wife Elise who accused him of having no reflections, aspirations, or observations (You’re watching another football game?) but rather to envision the next phase of his life, as Brenna the support group leader with the wild-honey hair and the newly-minted MSW and the scoop-neck tops that show a buoyant inch of cleavage cradling a tiny pearl on a silver chain has suggested, but journaling requires the right notebook, not a drugstore wide-ruled spiral with a big-eyed anime cutie pie on the cover, but a genuine journal, such as those displayed at Papier, the stationery boutique he passes every evening downtown …