Aleece told me that Brownie had run away from home. My heart stopped cold when I recognized her shaggy body stuffed, still as a rod in the basement. Aleece loved Empire Strikes Back—admiring Han Solo’s strong body perfected under carbonite; I think that’s what started it. This fixation: tiny nimble fingers sewing loosened parts. Gathered wall to wall: quail, peacock, deer. Frozen forests. Brownie. Tethered to their prime. My sister, my sister. She would slice the throat. Careful incisions, hours of research, stuffing. Meaning I learned from the best. She’d admire it, I consider, passing her figure beside the stairs.
—Elizabeth DesRosiers is a short form creative writer and artist in Colorado. Beside her charming tabby companion, Gambino, she writes copy full-time and fills notebooks with crossed out ideas part-time. She previously worked as the poetry editor for the second issue of MSU Denver’s Roadrunner Review, for which she also designed the cover.
Elizabeth DesRosiers on writing “Preserved:
I wrote “Preserved” during a seasonal Star Wars obsession that caused me to love Han Solo more than I already did, and Anakin even more than that (The Clone Wars Anakin, you know, the whole tragic downfall). I was fascinated by the idea of a villain who simply wants things to remain the same – who can’t let go.