Fridging Mothers

"Leda and the Swan" by Rachel Walker

I have this warehouse that holds hundreds of fridges, and you can put your mothers inside the humming coffins for a small fee, not to freeze your mothers of course, but to keep them cold enough to preserve love your whole life, and you can visit them from time to time so you’ll be able to remember the shape of their hands, and the perfume of their skin, but you should know that eventually everyone stops visiting, because the mothers, when they come out, are not the same, but trust me, it’s all worth it in the end.

About the author

Elena Zhang is a Chinese American writer and mother living in Chicago. Her work can be found in HAD, The Citron Review, Ghost Parachute, and Lost Balloon, among other publications, and has been selected for Best Microfiction 2024. She’s on Twitter @ezhang77. 

About the artist

Rachel Walker is a Brooklyn-based artist who paints otherworldly women lost in a ghostly dimension. Her watercolor technique in gouache defines her unusual palette and approach to painting. Her methodology is unique, utilizing an intuitive process that taps into surrealist methods such as automatic painting and collage. Her work has been featured in New American Paintings and The Chicago Underground Film Festival.