Originally published in Tin House – Winter 2014
My parents meet on a blind date in 1976. Richard with his leather cowboy hat and hand-painted jean jacket, Meridy with her purple turban and kohled eyes. He reads her aura; she reads his tarot cards. The first time they make love he has an epileptic seizure during the night and urinates in her bed. Nothing is simple.
On their third date, he takes her to an Italian restaurant in the Castro, the kind of place where “That’s Amore” plays on an infinite loop. “There’s something important I have to tell you,” Rich says. “I am carrying a spirit-child with me, a little boy, and he’s ready to be born into the here and now.”
Most likely, Meridy doesn’t believe him. But there is delirious magic in his way of speaking. A few weeks later, he looks into her eyes after lovemaking and says, “There. Now you’re pregnant.” So she is.
Alia Volz 
Hi Alia
I am not sure this is the same lady that wrote the essay on work in NY Times. If it is nice article and the marine headlands is a magical place where I ride my bike when I visit from San Diego.
You write well and it engages the reader. I got bucked and almost run over by a bad horse as a kid so ride motorcycles and bicycles!!
Yet I love Westerns and the power and stature of horses.
Best
Timothy
Thanks for your kind words, Timothy. Maybe I’ll see you on the trail someday.
Salud!
Alia