"How to Eat a Ceci Bean" by Greg Bowers

She rolled each ceci bean between the thumb and index finger of her left hand until the peel came loose and dropped into a saucer.

Then, before she popped the bean in her mouth, my grandmother picked up the salt shaker with her right hand and shook it once over each bean. No more than a grain or two could’ve landed.

It wasn’t until I was older that I realized that most people called them garbanzos or chickpeas. And that people ate them, typically without peeling them. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I have even called them garbanzos or chickpeas myself. And I know that I eat them without peeling them now.

Sometimes things slip away and you have to try really hard to remember what it was like before they did.

My grandmother also kept an aquarium of Black Moor goldfish with bubble eyes. They glided through the water on gauzy black fins that moved like the flowing lace trim on a lady’s evening gown. Somehow, they seemed to touch everything at once: the plastic plants, the ceramic castle and even the glass sides of the aquarium.

Even when the aquarium light was turned off and you couldn’t make out the details anymore, you could still see them moving, like shadows, through the dark water.

Featured Art: "After Gloaming", 35mm photograph submitted anonymously

Greg Bowers is a former reporter and editor in Pennsylvania and has taught journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO. His work has appeared in Arts & LettersDaily, Saw Palm, Southeast Review, Missouri Life, and Between Coasts. He now lives near York, PA. Favorite writing moments include hovering in a blimp above a National Football League game and watching, with journalism students at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, while Jamaican Usain Bolt ran faster than any human being had ever run before.