Friday, August 30, 2013

Ten Places I've Spent the Night, by Carla DeMello, Stacey Murphy, Yvette Rubio


Carla DeMello

In a sauna, because it was the only option

On the beach in Santa Barbara, which was full of tar in those days, and the next morning my mother cleaned it off me with kerosene

In the top bureau drawer in among the undergarments

In a closet for too many reasons to list here

In a light blue plastic laundry hamper because there was a huge nest of black widow spiders under my real bed

In Los Angeles when I was supposed to be in San Diego

In a bush because I was lost

In a tent that rolled down the hill

In the bed the dog thought was his and wasn’t shy about letting me know

In my very own bed all alone


Stacey Murphy

At my grandmother's, sleeping on a bench next to a potbelly stove in the living room

In a lean-to in 20 degree weather with friends, an inadequate sleeping bag, and adequate scotch

On a beach lounger on a deck overlooking Cape May beach,  until the 4 a.m. mosquitos and dew ruined it — then I spent the rest of the night . . . .

Under the dining room table of the beach house overlooking Cape May beach

A bed & breakfast in Rhode Island that was decorated with memorabilia from the Titanic

In a friend's home full of unique furnishings — ours was the room next to the "Zombie Baby Room"

On the floor of a pavilion on a rainy campout, next to a fire, surrounded by children who feared the many bats who lived there and darted over our heads

In a car with two giggling girlfriends on a road trip to see another friend, celebrating just being able to drive at night

On an overstuffed, soft soft bed in New Orleans

Completely and utterly inside my own mind


Yvette Rubio

In my grandmother's big dark mahogany bed in her house on Apple Street

In the baggage rack of a European train in 1968

In a tent in Munich, during the Oktoberfest on a frosty night — the next morning I learned that Jimi Hendrix had died

In a small family-run mountain home called a gite in Imlil, Morocco, (the highest village in the Atlas Mountains)

In a convent, in Assisi, Italy, where I ate green lasagna noodles for the first time

On a plane, many, many times over

On an overnight boat to Crete

In the back of a station wagon somewhere in Alabama

In a chateau in the Loire Valley, where each night I slept in a different room 

Beneath a volcano in Guatemala