What’s your name? Where are you from? Who’s your family? (Annette, Le Vampire, 2018.)

My name is Annette Lapel. And I have enough time on my hands to take a stab at my autobiography—at least a first draft…

My mother was a seamstress who owned a dress shop on Decatur. My father was a photographer who traveled the world. I spend most of my days in my mother’s studio or my father’s library reading his favorite books and playing with his camera. My plan is to leave the world with glamorous fossilized photos of me when I die and the apocalypse finally claims the human race. I spend most of my days playing dress up in my mother’s dresses and documenting my creations—experiences blur together—forming my own unique reality.

My imaginative world is made up of my own manifestations of the present. I don’t need to leave.

However, there are some experiences that I actively try to leave in the past…