Painting and Story by Lehan Winifred Ramsay

the evening of the fireworks festival, sitting on the front stop eating a cob of corn. all the shops festival food tables lining the street, a boy in a golden beer costume shouting for customers. the young boy in yukata shrieked when the cicada dropped heavily onto the hot road underneath the bicycle. he squatted down desperately wanting to touch it. here, I called, held out the plastic container to him. back at the bicycle he opened and closed it and wailed that it wouldn’t stay shut, but I was already searching the plastic bag for the rubber band. here. scared to touch it, trying to figure out how to get it into the container. the boy in the golden beer costume reached down and pulled it up. dropped it in the container, stretched the rubber band around it. off the boy went. down the street. up to my window went I.