Radishes Are Junk Food

My dad, brother, and I were all at a barbecue some guy was throwing that I didn’t know, but worked with my dad. Although we weren’t at home, it was understood that my brother and I still lived at our dad’s house. There was a delapidated trailer next door on a large swath of land. It was a faded bluish-gray, and the foundation beneath it was in the process of a very slow collapse.

My dad informed my brother and I that he was going to buy it and that we were all going to move into it. Both my brother and I protested and I told my dad it was a total piece of shit. He told us to look inside because he thought we would like it better.

The inside was equally horrible, with brown water stains on both the tops and bottoms of the walls. The carpet was brown and the floor was unstable so we had to be careful where we stepped. The only advantage the trailer had was that the inside was huge. However, the entire thing was basically squalor, and my dad just kept talking about its potential.

Later we were at an undisclosed amusement park. My sister was there but she was still a toddler, and my mother was alive and was also there. We kept riding the same roller coaster over and over again. It was operated by my ex-boyfriend, Ben. I talked to him briefly and though I can’t remember what he said, exactly, I remember thinking that it was ridiculous and had a very hard time being polite.

The park announced it was closing. Part of the closing ritual was for everyone’s children to descend upon these giant bins of raw vegetables that were set up in the roller coaster area. As the children filled their bags, the parents competitively spoke about what positive attributes their children’s vegetable selections represented.

I intentionally took as long as possible because by this time, I knew we were going home to that hideous trailer my dad liked so much.

My selection primarily consisted of radishes, and the other parents were saying that radishes were disgusting junk food and whispered to each other about how my parents must have fed me horribly.