On Latency by Emma Bernstein
Latent. /’lātnt/. Adjective. In biology: “(of a bud, resting stage, etc.)-lying dormant or hidden until circumstances are suitable for development or manifestation.” In medicine: “(of a disease) in which the usual symptoms are not yet manifest.” In speech: “(of a quality or state) existing but not yet developed or manifest; hidden or concealed.” In memory: It had been three days, and I still hadn’t told anyone that I got my period. Or else: years earlier, Nov. 4, 2008, listening to election results crackle over the radio from the back of my mom’s Ford Explorer. Barack Obama would 34 • zooming out
declare victory before I fell asleep that night, a blur of confetti and popped champagne on the television, but what I remember most is pulling into the driveway as we heard the news: Prop 8 had passed in California, banning same-sex marriage state-wide. My mom cried that night in the front seat, knuckles gripping the steering wheel. I don’t know that she ever really wanted to get remarried, but she heard, then, what the people of California, what her people, had to say about her. Throughout my childhood, I saw, up close, so much of what my mom felt-contagious joy, contagious sorrow,
