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Cecilia Manguerra Brainard shares THE ONE-NIGHT STAND AT THE FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR, a work of fiction inspired by her visit to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2024. This was first published by the Philippines Graphics Reader on May 2025.
Cecilia is the award-winning author of three novels: When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, Magdalena, and The Newspaper Widow. Her Selected Short Stories was awarded the 40th National Book Award. Her work has been translated into Greek, Turkish and Finnish. Her books have forthcoming translations in Portuguese, Japanese, and other languages. For more information, please visit her official website at https://ceciliabrainard.com
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MARIBEL GLANCED AT HER PLANE SEAT, grateful that she had the aisle seat and only one seat beside her. Her seat mate was a young woman who had her ear buds on. Maribel was grateful for that too; she didn’t have to chitchat with her. After making sure she had her passport, eyeglasses, and valuables in her small cross body bag, she tucked her backpack under the seat in front of her. She buckled herself, and settled into her seat, ready for the ten-hour journey from Los Angeles to Frankfurt.
While passengers and the airplane attendants bustled around her, she closed her eyes and tried to push away the sadness of the past few days. She had been in LA for the funeral of Lou, her school friend, partner in countless girlish escapades, and later, companion to more serious political marches. They were both writers and they had written their share of articles to try and right wrong (human rights, justice, gender equality, extra-judicial killings). Later, Maribel had found her voice in her political-yet-entertaining fiction. The two women had kept in touch even when Lou had migrated to the US and married an Irish-American.
