Drown

This story is divided into vignettes, which are all subtitled, except for the first one.

The narrator, whom we later learn is named Lucero, states that he and his friend Cut drove to the South River for a drug pick-up on the day in which the story opens. He states that the Peruvian man who hooks them up gave them a sampler of his superweed. On the way home, having smoked some of it, the two young men could have sworn that they smelled cookies baking as they passed the Hydrox factory.

Lucero states that it took them four hours to sort, weigh, and bag the weed, and that they were smoking the entire time. Consequently, they became very high. Lucero says that he is waiting for Aurora to show up: she customarily comes by on Fridays, when she knows that they will have freshly-stocked weed.

Lucero and Aurora have not seen each other in a week. The last time they were together, she put long, swollen cuts on his arm with her long nails. Around midnight, she begins tapping on the basement window. When the narrator moves to answer her, Cut tells him not to, and that he should “leave it alone” (48).