Picture a silver-haired woman with silver-capped front teeth standing at her kitchen sink. She faces a window that looks east. In an hour, she’ll be driving west, to work. For now, the dawn belongs to her.

The sun begins its ascent over the San Gabriel Valley.

The woman lifts a mug of coffee to her wrinkled lips and blows, flattening the steam. In this moment, El Sereno deserves its name. A rooster interrupts the silence. The neighbor’s pregnant pit bull howls. A hummingbird hovers just outside the window, dipping his beak into a Mexican sage’s white and purple blooms. The silver-haired woman watches him bob. The way that the bird moves his head, jerking it left, right, left, reminds her of her son, the one who treated his body like the Sistine Chapel. A tattoo of Our Lady of Fátima crowning his head. Lilies on his stubbly cheeks. The sacred heart of Jesus covering his own. The temple that was his body has been destroyed. She’ll visit what remains of him on Sunday, bringing roses, marzipan, and beer to the cemetery. Until then, she will swallow her bitter drink and wonder if the coffee sipped by the mother of the boy who stole her son tastes any sweeter.

– Myriam Gurba

Makeup by Esther Foster
Hair by Fitch Lunar
Photography Assistance by Victor Prieto and Luis Ramirez
Makeup Assistance by Jessica Harris
Styling Assistance by Andrew McFarland, Arianna Thode, and Laura Cheron Haquette
Casting and Production by Natalie Lin at in Search of Agency