BY HILDIE S. BLOCK

Copyright is held by the author.

“So how did you guys meet?”

“It was right before the big election and I’d just finished my Latin homework. I felt so trapped by the pandemic. It was terrible. I just needed to put a message out there to the world and if political graffiti was good enough in Pompeii —

So on the wall in front of my house, I spray painted (don’t worry, it was chalk!)

VOTE

But then my mother yelled and I went inside, leaving the can behind.

When I got off the bus the next day, it said

VOTE      NO

I decided that wouldn’t do and changed it to

VOTE FOR NO MAN

(I was really into Emily Dickinson)

I left the can outside to see what would happen.

The next day the sign read:

VOTE FOR NO MAN OF WOMAN BORN

And I thought “Oh, it’s on!” so I added —

VOTE FOR NO MAN OF WOMAN BORN

#LADYMACDUFF

The next day there was more —

VOTE FOR NO MAN OF WOMAN BORN

#LADYMACDUFF

#WYRDSISTERS #NEWRELEASE #SPOTIFY #PLAYLIST

I went inside and checked out Spotify and found the Wyrd Sisters new release playlist. I requested permission to be admin and started adding songs. (We were the only two admins.  Only two subscribers, too).

Riddle after riddle, messages in the songs. Eventually, we tracked each other down on Discord and met for ice cream over at Quintus’. Turns out, he’d just been dog walking in my neighbourhood, then —

And then, what’s past is prologue.

***

Hildie S. Block (she/her) is a night owl, a writer, a teacher, and a little obsessed with the weather. Her day doesn’t start until after a cup of coffee with a little NPR (National Public Radio). She lives in Virginia, U.S., with her family and her axolotl named Xipe! PANTRY, a book of micro essays, is coming from Stanchion Press in 2026. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Salon, Cortland Review, Gargoyle, (and about 50 other places), and won the 2022 Washington Writer’s Publishing House Holiday contest. When not writing, she’s teaching, previously at George Washington and American Universities and currently leading workshops at the Writer’s Center www.writer.org and on her own www.hildieblockworkshop.com