west covina gothic
you’re told it takes two hours to get to the beach, so you get in your car and start driving. one hour passes. two. three. it’s been five hours and you’ve stopped seeing signs for exits. six and you start to worry this highway empties out directly into the ocean. seven and you forget why you got in the car in the first place. you turn around. next time someone mentions the beach being two hours away, you get very sleepy for some reason you can’t discern, but you’re compelled to nod and agree
you meet josh chan at the church who tells you he’s from azusa, 91010. a few minutes later you come upon another josh chan at the market, this one from glendale, 91020. that night at home base, you meet the josh chan from west covina, 91791. you did not ask any of them for their zip code.
you find the cutest boba stand in the middle of a park. the next day, you come back to find the park’s been concreted over and a doughnut shop in it’s place. you ask about boba at the counter. the attendant’s nose starts bleeding.
all the articles on the daily covina blog are about the same person you’ve never seen before.
you find a yoga instructor with excellent ratings and sign up for a six-pack of classes. she has you do corpse pose the whole time.
you start to see flyers advertising a sponsored party at a local club around town. you swear while you’re looking at one, the apostrophe moves.
you sign up for a couple classes at the junior college. “what are you studying?” you ask one of your classmates. “i’m a student,” they reply. "do you like this professor?” you ask another. they shrug and say, “i’m a student.” “ooh, gum, can i have a piece?” you ask someone else. they scoff. “i’m a student.” you stop talking to people after that
you hear genre-savvy music in the distance. you always hear genre-savvy music in the distance.
