October (An ANIAPPT story) If October were a person, she would be the kind of person others described as "the kind of person you think the month of October would be if she were a person," which is weird because you just sort of accepted that October would be a woman. That's on you, not me. I, the writer, did not accept without critical examination the idea that the name of a concept, previously applied to an arbitrary division of time, would also be the name of a woman. No, I thought about it a long time. I thought about all the different people October could be: soldier, baker, cartographer, professional golf caddy. I thought of what October would like (dark chocolate, cashews) and dislike (police procedurals). I thought about the qualities of that arbitrary concept: warm going to cold, golden bright-hued days and windy nights, a transition from one to the other. I thought so much about it I lost my job, my friends, my family. I live now alone in this cabin. That's on me.