Desiree Byrne
Desiree Byrne has no desires in the whole wide world.
The day Desiree Byrne entered the world, she did not cry, but instead let out a long and exhausted sigh, as if to say, “What a long life I’ve got ahead of me.”
Desiree has one simple comfort. To sit in her armchair and read Home & Garden provided her the only thing close to peace she knew in her impatient journey toward death.
The neighbors upstairs rattle the windows in the whole building with hip-hop. Each of the five white-faced boys freely uses the N-word in conversation with each other.
Desiree lives on disability checks provided due to her amputated legs. At age fifteen, she jumped off a bridge, and a doctor with a bald spot decided to cut her legs off.
The only person who visits is Steven, the caretaker. Steven has a neck beard and smokes too many cigarettes. Desiree would smoke too if she cared enough to leave the house.
