Vocal Expressions

This is the first contemporary short story I’ve read by Emily Josephine and I found her writing style engaging. The storyline revolves around Rachel and her two kids who are staying at her cousin Joe’s house for the past month while waiting on her husband to return and pick them up.  She’s enjoying Marilyn’s (Joe’s wife) mid-summer pool party when she’s approached by some snooty and condescending country club woman who immediately start judging her appearance—her sloppy ponytail, lack of makeup, no nail polish, and unshaved armpits. They even question whether her kids are adopted based on their skin tone and their names (Natalia and Diego).  Their mean-girl vibes are enough for Rachel to want to roll her eyes, but she squeezes them instead during the awkward conversations. However, when a song by pop star Julio Estrella plays on the radio and the women start swooning over how hot he is, she can’t help but smile inwardly—because she knows something they don’t. She patient...

Author’s Bio: Linda Murphy Marshall has a Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages and Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing. She was a multi-linguist for the government for 30 years, working with more than a dozen languages, going on dangerous work assignments to Africa. She worked as a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Maryland’s Center for Advanced Study of Language/CASL, a language think tank, specializing in African languages.  Her 2022 memoir, Ivy Lodge: A Memoir of Translation and Discovery received a starred review from Kirkus. H er second memoir, Immersion: A Linguist’s Memoir , was published in 2024. She is an Associate for the National Museum of Language and a docent at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Her essays have appeared in more than two dozen publications, including the Los Angeles Review, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, The Catamaran Literary Reader, Maryland Literary Review, Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog, and elsewhere.   Deliah Lawrence: Who or ...