by Dylan Hopper<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She found Cali standing barefoot on the landing of the rusted billboard again. This was their spot, overlooking a pond to the north and tall enough to peek over the trees that lined the highway to the south. She was a vibrant oddity against the double-sided, sun-blanched advertisement for Mac\u2019s BBQ Farm<\/em>. The grinning pig logo appeared menacing, colorless as a skull, peeling from the bottom as if trying to reach out and caress her legs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cali was dressed in the baby pink, silk kimono she had stolen from a vintage shop down by the pier. It caught in the warm breeze and danced around her as she moved closer to the edge and waved. She kneeled near the top of the ladder, pink silk rising with the wind and spreading out behind her. Her floor-length skirt seemed an imitation of her mermaid’s iridescent fin, fitting tight over her hips and tapering in at the ankles. She exuded kindness in her careful movements, so deliberately fluid, it often seemed as if she was still moving through the water. In many ways, Cali never left the observation tank, and in many ways, neither did Mara. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When she reached the base of the billboard\u2019s ladder, Mara climbed. Cali offered her hand to her on the last two steps. On the landing, they moved to the edge closest to the pond and sat side by side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cali stared into the water below. A cypress knee poked through the center of the pond; a\u00a0 white crane stood atop it on one leg. \u201cDo you ever get that strange urge to jump?\u201d she asked.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cL’appel du vide,\u201d Mara said. \u201cIt usually only hits me when we start to climb down.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cali scoffed. \u201cOkay, you know I didn\u2019t have a Cajun granny, so you\u2019re going to have to\u00a0 tell me what the hell that means.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMeans the call of the void,\u201d Mara said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cali laughed and said, \u201cTrust the French to have a phrase for everything.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n A bloated shadow moved beneath the surface of the water. Mara thought of David, of his blank, fish-like eyes. The memory of his lingering gaze evoked a primal sense of dread and though it was well over ninety degrees and muggy, her skin pimpled with goosebumps. She knew Cali was thinking of him, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI feel the call of the void all the time now. It\u2019s as if the universe is begging me to do something reckless,\u201d Cali said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLike punch David in the face?\u201d Mara asked, grinning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019ll do when I see him,\u201d she said, pulling the sides of her kimono in around her. \u201cCan\u2019t we just mail our resignation letters?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n David had been particularly vicious with Cali lately. She had fallen from his good graces ever since her hair became algae-tinted from the motel pool\u2019s acidic levels of chlorine. Whenever he spotted her, he called in a cruel, carnival-barker voice, Come one, come all! Witness Medusa underwater! She can make a man hard with a single look! <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe gotta finish this show,\u201d Mara said. \u201cGet our last paycheck from him. After that, I promise we\u2019ll get on the road.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cali nodded. Below, an alligator bobbed and broke the pond\u2019s surface. It opened its mouth wide, as if in a yawn. It paused, jaws agape. Mara imagined its teeth more menacing than its true nature, large and wicked sharp like pieces of glass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mara felt Cali\u2019s eyes on her, watching her watch the alligator below. She thought of David\u2019s sweaty palms and unabashed leering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHow much longer do we have?\u201d she asked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot long. Show\u2019s at two.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe should go,\u201d Mara said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cali nodded and rolled her skirt up around her thighs before finding footing on the ladder and starting her descent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mara studied her, how easily her limbs acclimated to gravity\u2019s pull and settled into that sinking feeling. The wind lifted and her kimono fanned out behind her like a siren\u2019s wings. For a moment, she pictured an alternate reality, one where they covered their skin in feathers instead of silicone scales, where they floated on air and never held their breath. A sudden urge to jump called to her from somewhere below, the alligator or the shadow of a man reflected in the pond\u2019s surface. She gripped the warm, iron slats of the ladder and followed her, uneasy all the way down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The back window of Cali\u2019s white VW bug was obscured by their duffle bags, stacked on top of one another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The car puttered to life, and they pulled out of the parking lot. The engine light flickered on and off at the slightest rattle. In spite of the heat, December was a shell of a month, a reverberation of Myrtle Beach\u2019s typical activity. As they ambled along Ocean Boulevard toward the aquarium in sparse traffic, Mara took in the strip malls of beach gear gift shops, seafood restaurants, pancake houses, and mini-golf fun parks along the way as if for the first time, knowing it would be the <\/strong>last. Though they only lived here for six months, Mara felt some fondness for the cheap and desolate star-spangled charm of this town. She committed to memory the amalgamation of stores with their American flags cradled in dark gravel parking lots like oysters in a marsh-bed. The Pearl: Surf Shop <\/em>had wrapped Christmas lights around the lobster head mannequin in its display window. Even the local scammers seemed to be in the spirit, green and red spotlights illuminated an advertisement for $20 Helicopter Rides!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The aquarium was visible from the main road, the far left side of the building marked by a monstrous metal fin, the main entrance sheltered within the mouth of a reconstructed shark\u2019s head. During the summer, kids loved to run between the pillars of teeth lining its bottom jaw, but today, the parking lot was almost empty. They pulled in their designated employee space and locked the car. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cReady?\u201d Mara asked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cali nodded, twisting the tails of her kimono in her fists. Mara slung her arm around her shoulders and squeezed. Together, they walked over the glimmering concrete and into the aquarium. The shark\u2019s glass-door mouth swallowed them whole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n David was absent when they arrived in the lobby, but the sharp alcoholic scent of his cologne lingered in the staff-only hallways and in their dressing room, a mist that promised a full-bodied apparition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They sat at their vanities and applied their waterproof makeup. A ritual in transformation, they fulfilled David\u2019s vision for mermaids and became little Marilyn Monroes with fins. Cali painted a beauty mark in the top right corner of her cheek. Mara stained her mouth bright red. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On the observation deck, they sat and rubbed Vaseline on their legs. With skin slippery against the grated, metal runway, they wriggled into their mermaid tails. The tank beneath them was a perfect oval and reminded Mara of a great monocled eye peering up at them, as expectant as the audience below. The void called to her here, too. The water smacked against the confines of the tank, rippling in an eternal simulation of current and tugging at that reckless urge inside her chest. She heard in the whining trill of the industrial water filtration system, in the hiss of the exposed pipes, in the buzz of the overhead spotlights, an irresistible harmony calling, Dive, dive! <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n With their legs bound in silicone, they slithered toward the water and lowered their bodies into the overhang net. <\/p>\n\n\n\n David\u2019s voice boomed, omniscient from the intercoms above and from the speakers below deck, \u201cPlease put your hands together and welcome our two real life <\/em>mermaids!\u201d Submerging was as simple as walking through a door, now. The water, a warm and uterine-like fluid, cradled their bodies, soothing them into a space between reality and void. The fish, a haze of color, brushed across their armpits and exposed abdomens. They embodied myth, suppressing the natural instinct to breathe, feigning serenity. With a practiced motion of their poised fins, they shaped hearts out of bubbles, and with twin winks, pushed their hearts toward the blurred image of a woman behind the glass. Mara imagined she was like them, in love with the idea of being in a different world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the dark of the observation room, the barrier between them seemed like a mirror. Floating and posing together, their faces overlapped the woman\u2019s in turn and perceptions mingled. Without knowing who she was, they identified how she occupied the inside of her body. They undulated their torsos, fluttered their tails. She knew what it meant to act in accordance with the theatrics of living as a beautiful creature. They performed ease\u2014 low on oxygen, behind passing sharks, even when the spectators could not see them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They knew she executed transformative rituals to resemble fantasy, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unable to speak, they fashioned their lips to the pre-recording and sang through David\u2019s loud speakers, gesturing to her, \u201cOh, we wish we could be like you!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Breaking through the water\u2019s surface and into the glare of the overhead lights ruptured\u00a0 the illusion. They skinned the silicone fins from their legs, squeezed their hair free of salt water,\u00a0wrapped towels around their torsos, headed back to their dressing room. Whether it was due to\u00a0 placebo effect or lack of oxygen, Mara couldn\u2019t say, but stripping free of the fantasy always left\u00a0 an ache. The joy they portrayed underwater was never real, and yet, a sense of loss lingered\u00a0 whenever they returned to their bipedal bodies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cali stared at her reflection in the dressing room mirror, adjusting and readjusting her kimono. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHey,\u201d Mara said. \u201cListen, why don\u2019t you wait in the car? I\u2019ll get our paychecks, give David our letters.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo way, Mara,\u201d she said, eyes wide. \u201cI can\u2019t leave you with him.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ll be okay,\u201d Mara said, not knowing if it was true. \u201cHe\u2019s been on your case more than mine.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n She fisted the tails of her kimono, massaged over the thinning, silk fabric. \u201cAre you sure?\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mara fished the keys out of her tote bag and handed them to her. \u201cIf I\u2019m not out in twenty, come in and get me?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cali pulled her into a hug and squeezed tight before letting go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was customary at the end of two weeks to stop by David\u2019s office and retrieve their\u00a0 paychecks, but Mara had never done so alone. The hallway seemed longer than usual. The\u00a0 barebones nature of the linoleum tile and exposed pipes, the hissing and grumbling sounds of the\u00a0 water filtration systems reminded her of the phrase in the belly of the beast. <\/em>If the aquarium was\u00a0the shark, David was its stomach acid. Corrosive is an understatement, <\/em>one of the scuba divers\u00a0 once told Mara. A shark\u2019s stomach acid is strong enough to dissolve metal.\u00a0 <\/em>At the door labeled, MANAGER, she stopped and knocked.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCome in!\u201d David called. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She took a deep breath, as if preparing to submerge, and opened the door.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAh,\u201d he said, his mouth twitched as if repressing a frown. He rose from behind his desk\u00a0 and gestured to the chair in front of him. \u201cJust you today, honey? Where\u2019s Medusa?\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe\u2019s not feeling well,\u201d Mara said. She remained standing and used the chair as a barrier\u00a0 between them. She was hyperaware of her limbs, of the tension coiled in her trembling hands.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSeemed just fine to me when you gals were swimmin\u2019 out there,\u201d he said, opening a\u00a0 drawer and sorting through papers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re paid to seem fine, aren\u2019t we?\u201d she asked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He chuckled. \u201cSpeaking of pay,\u201d he said, retrieving their checks and handing them to her.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n She took their paychecks from his outstretched hand and shoved them into the bottom of\u00a0 her bag. \u201cDavid, I\u2019ve got something for you, too,\u201d she said. \u201cHere are our letters of resignation,\u201d\u00a0 she said, placing the letters on the chair in front of her.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n As if she hadn\u2019t spoken, he stepped around his desk and said, \u201cMy first love, she was a lot like you. She was a good girl, never wanted to say no to me.\u201d With one foot, he nudged the chair to the side. \u201cDo you find it difficult to say no?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of his meaty hands circled her wrist, the other curled under her shirt and caressed her bare stomach. David\u2019s mouth spread into an ugly and open maw, emitting muffled phrases. She felt as though she was underwater again, the pull of the artificial current pressing incessant around her, her heartbeat a steady drum dissolving his words into void. Beneath the surface, a hum like the hissing of the water filtration system, a call from deep inside her body to do something reckless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo!\u201d she screamed, shoving him with all her strength and tearing away from his grasp. His pot-bellied body wobbled and stumbled backward into his desk. Her legs carried her down the hallway, the buzzing luminescence blurring the scene, her breath steady reverberations of no, no, no<\/em>. His heavy-footed gait echoed behind her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She broke out of the shark\u2019s glass-door mouth and ran through the parking lot. It was dark out, but she spotted Cali under one of lights, leaning against the trunk, mermaid tails clasped in her hands. When Cali spotted Mara, she raised her arms and waved the tails. \u201cMara!\u201d she called, grinning. \u201cLook! Look!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCali!\u201d Mara said, panicked. \u201cGet in the car!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mara looked over her shoulder at the aquarium\u2019s entrance. The figure of a large man strode out from between the shark\u2019s teeth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mara grabbed the tails from Cali\u2019s hands, yanked open the passenger-side door, and shoved the tails into the backseat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTheft! Theft!\u201d David\u2019s voice boomed across the lot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have to get out of here!\u201d Mara said, climbing into the passenger seat and slamming the door shut. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFuck!\u201d Cali said, closing the driver\u2019s side door and cranking the ignition. Mara turned to look over her shoulder. One of the lot\u2019s lights illuminated David as he unlocked his Ford truck and climbed inside. Cali shifted the car into drive. The tires squealed as their car sped out of the parking lot and pulled onto the main road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat the hell happened?\u201d Cali asked. \u201cDid he touch you?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhy did you take the fins?\u201d Mara asked, then stared at the reflection of his murky truck headlights in her sideview mirror. \u201cCali\u2014 He\u2019s following us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know, I know,\u201d she said, making a sudden right turn without using her blinker.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mara\u2019s breath shuddered between her teeth. Her body was still shivering.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cali made a sudden sharp left turn, narrowly escaping collision with oncoming traffic.\u00a0 \u201cSorry,\u201d she muttered, glancing again in her sideview mirror. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI took the fins because\u00a0 they\u2019re part of us, a part of our lives I didn\u2019t want David to keep.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mara nodded. She wanted to tell Cali she understood, but before she could, a pair of truck headlights appeared in their rearview mirrors, murky and unmistakably David\u2019s. The truck revved its engine, speeding up and riding so close to their bumper he nearly made impact. Cali hissed and turned down another street before accelerating. Mara looked out the window. They were on the highway along the marsh. Cali turned on her left blinker. He slowed. His truck\u2019s left turn signal blinked back at them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe can\u2019t risk him colliding with us,\u201d Cali said, staring straight ahead. \u201cWe can\u2019t afford another car, and it\u2019s too dangerous to wait around on the bus when he\u2019s looking for us.\u201d Her voice was unlike anything Mara ever heard, deep and tranquil as a monk\u2019s. Illuminated by the moon, the billboard rose from the marsh as tall and ominous as the cross. \u201cGet ready to climb,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A few feet from the base of the billboard, she yanked the car into park, ripped the keys out of the ignition. Mara was the first to mount the ladder. She climbed, her limbs rising and falling in a familiar mechanical motion. She stared and envisioned standing upon the platform until she lifted her body onto it. She turned and peered down. Mara was right behind her, but the unmistakable figure of David lumbered up after her. She reached out to her, and together, they muscled Cali up onto the landing beside her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCome on,\u201d Cali whispered. Holding hands, they rounded the billboard and thinned their bodies against the pond-facing side. She leaned over and whispered in Mara\u2019s ear, \u201cL’appel du vide.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCali, no\u2014\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The platform shook, and Cali drew her hand over Mara\u2019s mouth. His steps reverberated beneath their feet. His panting gave his position away. They heard him amble along, coming up on their left. Cali let go of her hand and moved closer to his side. He stepped around the corner. His gaze swept along the landing. She raised her arms, her kimono spreading out behind her like a pair of deadly and beautiful wings, and dove upon him. Her fingers curved into talons and clawed at his face. David\u2019s mouth emitted a breathless sputter, and he stepped backward on instinct. His foot slipped into open air. His arms flailed. His hands clenched wildly and closed around a piece of Cali\u2019s kimono. He rocked back against the void before succumbing to its call and falling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The thin silk stretched, and like the threads of a powerful current, pulled Cali toward the edge. Time slowed, as if doused in buoyancy, the scene seemed to float around them. Mara wrapped Cali in her arms and plunged them down onto the platform. She heard fabric tear free from Cali\u2019s body, an animalistic shriek. They peered through the spaces in the metal grates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n David\u2019s body twitched and convulsed, punctured upon the cypress knee. In a stain of moonlight nearly as bright as the aquarium\u2019s industrial lamps, the feathered remains of Cali\u2019s kimono pooled around him, mimicking the blood seeping from his body. Mara and Cali squeezed each other. An unmistakable splash rippled across the marsh, a scaled creature submerged into the water below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A queer writer and poet, Dylan Hopper (she\/her) received her MFA from the University of Arkansas\u2019 Program in Creative Writing and Translation in Fayetteville. Her poems are forthcoming in Querencia Press’ Scavengers<\/em>. She once pretended to play bass in a punk band.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Dylan Hopper She found Cali standing barefoot on the landing of the rusted billboard again. This was their spot, overlooking a pond to the north and tall enough to peek over the trees that lined the highway to the south. She was a vibrant oddity against the double-sided, sun-blanched advertisement for Mac\u2019s BBQ Farm. The grinning pig logo appeared menacing, colorless as a skull, peeling from the bottom as if trying to reach out and caress her legs. Cali was dressed in the baby pink, silk kimono she had stolen from a vintage shop down by the pier. It caught in the warm breeze and danced around her as she moved closer to the edge and waved. She kneeled near the top of the ladder, pink silk rising with the wind and spreading out behind her. Her floor-length skirt seemed an imitation of her mermaid’s iridescent fin, fitting tight over her hips and tapering in at the ankles. She exuded kindness in her careful movements, so deliberately fluid, it often seemed as if she was still moving through the water. In many ways, Cali never left the observation tank, and in many ways, neither did Mara. When she reached the base of the billboard\u2019s ladder, Mara climbed. Cali offered her hand to her on the last two steps. On the landing, they moved to the edge closest to the pond and sat side by side. Cali stared into the water below. A cypress knee poked through the center of the pond; a\u00a0 white crane stood atop it on one leg. \u201cDo you ever get that strange urge to jump?\u201d she asked.\u00a0 \u201cL’appel du vide,\u201d Mara said. \u201cIt usually only hits me when we start to climb down.\u201d Cali scoffed. \u201cOkay, you know I didn\u2019t have a Cajun granny, so you\u2019re going to have to\u00a0 tell me what the hell that means.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMeans the call of the void,\u201d Mara said. Cali laughed and said, \u201cTrust the French to have a phrase for everything.\u201d A bloated shadow moved beneath the surface of the water. Mara thought of David, of his blank, fish-like eyes. The memory of his lingering gaze evoked a primal sense of dread and though it was well over ninety degrees and muggy, her skin pimpled with goosebumps. She knew Cali was thinking of him, too. \u201cI feel the call of the void all the time now. It\u2019s as if the universe is begging me to do something reckless,\u201d Cali said. \u201cLike punch David in the face?\u201d Mara asked, grinning. \u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019ll do when I see him,\u201d she said, pulling the sides of her kimono in around her. \u201cCan\u2019t we just mail our resignation letters?\u201d David had been particularly vicious with Cali lately. She had fallen from his good graces ever since her hair became algae-tinted from the motel pool\u2019s acidic levels of chlorine. Whenever he spotted her, he called in a cruel, carnival-barker voice, Come one, come all! Witness Medusa underwater! She can make a man hard with a single look! \u201cWe gotta finish this show,\u201d Mara said. \u201cGet our last paycheck from him. After that, I promise we\u2019ll get on the road.\u201d Cali nodded. Below, an alligator bobbed and broke the pond\u2019s surface. It opened its mouth wide, as if in a yawn. It paused, jaws agape. Mara imagined its teeth more menacing than its true nature, large and wicked sharp like pieces of glass. Mara felt Cali\u2019s eyes on her, watching her watch the alligator below. She thought of David\u2019s sweaty palms and unabashed leering. \u201cHow much longer do we have?\u201d she asked. \u201cNot long. Show\u2019s at two.\u201d \u201cWe should go,\u201d Mara said. Cali nodded and rolled her skirt up around her thighs before finding footing on the ladder and starting her descent. Mara studied her, how easily her limbs acclimated to gravity\u2019s pull and settled into that sinking feeling. The wind lifted and her kimono fanned out behind her like a siren\u2019s wings. For a moment, she pictured an alternate reality, one where they covered their skin in feathers instead of silicone scales, where they floated on air and never held their breath. A sudden urge to jump called to her from somewhere below, the alligator or the shadow of a man reflected in the pond\u2019s surface. She gripped the warm, iron slats of the ladder and followed her, uneasy all the way down. The back window of Cali\u2019s white VW bug was obscured by their duffle bags, stacked on top of one another. The car puttered to life, and they pulled out of the parking lot. The engine light flickered on and off at the slightest rattle. In spite of the heat, December was a shell of a month, a reverberation of Myrtle Beach\u2019s typical activity. As they ambled along Ocean Boulevard toward the aquarium in sparse traffic, Mara took in the strip malls of beach gear gift shops, seafood restaurants, pancake houses, and mini-golf fun parks along the way as if for the first time, knowing it would be the last. Though they only lived here for six months, Mara felt some fondness for the cheap and desolate star-spangled charm of this town. She committed to memory the amalgamation of stores with their American flags cradled in dark gravel parking lots like oysters in a marsh-bed. The Pearl: Surf Shop had wrapped Christmas lights around the lobster head mannequin in its display window. Even the local scammers seemed to be in the spirit, green and red spotlights illuminated an advertisement for $20 Helicopter Rides! The aquarium was visible from the main road, the far left side of the building marked by a monstrous metal fin, the main entrance sheltered within the mouth of a reconstructed shark\u2019s head. During the summer, kids loved to run between the pillars of teeth lining its bottom jaw, but today, the parking lot was almost empty. They pulled in their designated employee space and locked the car. \u201cReady?\u201d Mara asked. Cali nodded, twisting the tails<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issue-18-2025"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepetigrureview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepetigrureview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepetigrureview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepetigrureview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepetigrureview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thepetigrureview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepetigrureview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepetigrureview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepetigrureview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\n\n\n