November 24, 2022 - “Sucker Punch” by Elizabeth Lerman

They had decided, one afternoon, to sample the sudden shock of a split lip, of the shiners sported by boys at school who liked to play rough, and so they sat in a circle, up in the attic where their mothers would not go, and talked, quite seriously, about how to form a fist. Thumbs on the side, one of them said, or else the bone could break. They held pillows like punching bags and practiced until the movement became swift and natural, until their arms ached and feathers flew out of the fabric, until they felt like five girls who knew something about a sucker punch.