Beth Xia

(This is a short story originally published as an assignment. Trigger warning: death, suicide) How to stay positive at the end of the world You unzip the plastic bag and take out the pale blue notebook. The edges are moderately worn, with all the printed ephemera inside making the notebook curve like a whale. Handwriting is an intimate thing, you think as you flip through the pages. The words start at the baselines on the left and gradually shift upwards, just like how you would write. There...