DADS READ: “Nightlights” by Lorena Alvarez
JER: “Nightlights” by Lorena Alvarez is a weird and wonderful mix of beautiful, existential, and a little scary. Sandy catches the “nightlights” which turn into anything she can imagine, and then she draws them “so they stay with me!” But after she meets a new girl, Morfie, that no one else seems to be able to see, Sandy develops a semi-toxic but beneficial relationship with Morfie: Morfie demands more art and eats it with gluttonous desire. Sandy agrees to stay with Morfie if she helps do her tedious work, like writing out the numbers in pi (3.14159263589793238 . . .). I don’t know how to feel about the story, whether Morfie is the vanity and praise that turns art into work, if it is the deal we make with our brains to compartmentalize tedium from passion, or what it means, but I know I like it, and I like that it makes me intrigued and slightly uncomfortable.
