Memorial Day weekend honestly feels like the right time for this one.
The Last Straw was about one kind of war - fought in the skies over the Pacific, in the hearts of people who didn't have words for what they were feeling. Cooper's is about another kind that was fought on a street corner in Los Angeles, in the small hours of a May night, by people who also didn't have the words - but fought anyway.
When we left Vivian and Carmen in Part 1, they had found each other in the only place that felt safe. Cooper's Do-nuts on Main Street, which offered bad coffee and good company. It was a fragile, beautiful bubble of belonging. Then, violence found them.
For me, this is a story about courage. About the people history forgot. About the ordinary nights that turned out to be anything but.
Happy Memorial Day to my fellow Americans. Remember everyone who fought - in every kind of war. 💕
P.S. I've included PDFs of both Part 2 and the full version, and the plain text.