Thirty-Second Annual Chitlin Strut

A Kindle Single

This story was originally published in Day One, a weekly literary journal dedicated to short fiction and poetry from emerging writers.

After her grandpa Teeta dies, Mika starts spending time at her grandma Weesie’s house. So she’s there when two strangers show up at the door. But the two women aren’t selling insurance or religion—they’re long-lost blood relatives whose ancestors were kidnapped from the same Nigerian tribe and shipped to South Carolina to work the fields many decades earlier. And they want to offer Mika and Weesie an opportunity—become part of a growing network of family members they’ve been tracking down.

Before officially adding their names to the family registry, Weesie and Mika agree to meet some other newly verified cousins at the Thirty-Second Annual Chitlin Strut. There, on a sun-scorched fairground teeming with chitlin stands, Mika will ponder the meaning of home and loneliness and where she fits into the family tree.