On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

Rose once told Little Dog that memory is a choice. Little Dog lies next to his tall friend, Trevor, under a tree. They are both covered in blood from a wound on Trevor’s forehead. They sing “This Little Light of Mine” as the sun sets, and the November night grows colder. Rose waits at home, worried because Little Dog is late.

Little Dog asks Trevor to tell him a secret. Trevor asks him to go first. Little Dog tells him he is no longer afraid of dying. They laugh together.

Rose’s hands are hideous; they reflect her life of struggle and work in factories and nail salons. To Little Dog, a nail salon is “more than a place of work and a workshop for beauty, it is also a place where our children are raised” (79). Many Vietnamese immigrants work in nail salons, unable to find better paying work.

Little Dog is 10 years old. His mother runs a nail salon on Sundays. A wizened old woman comes in for a pedicure. Little Dog helps her into the salon chair. She has a prosthetic leg. She asks