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  "description": "by M. S. Reagan  |  Following the music.",
  "path": "/twirl-girl/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-11-26T12:15:33.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.short-reads.org",
  "tags": [
    "@m-s-reagan.bsky.social",
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    "Chad Vogler",
    "Anna Hall",
    "Stephen Knezovich",
    "“One Thanksgiving in Maine”",
    "“Confession”",
    "Explore the entire Short Reads archive."
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  "textContent": "Brassy notes ringing into blue sky lure me, and I decide to follow the music. My soles strike the sidewalk, timed to the _thump_ of the bass drums. Sam walks at my side, looks up at me and smiles, furry ears perked. We crunch through fallen leaves.\n\nIt is football night, and a river of plumed red hats dams the intersection of Park and Morris, the band blocking the street, marching in place, moments away from parading into the stadium. They fill the neighborhood with sound, delicious sound. I stop and drink from the source.\n\nOut front, the majorettes dance in plain red mini dresses with long sleeves, skirts flaring out like bells. Their legs are long and lithe and uniformly tan from their dance tights.\n\nMy mind drifts to those faded old Kodachrome slide photos of my mother and my aunt in matching outfits with batons. My mother used to take a roll of wrapping paper and nestle it in the crook of her arm, showing us how to properly march with a baton. Would she have bought me a baton had I been assigned a girl at birth? Some version of that question—and the possibilities it opens up—has haunted my thoughts for as long as I can remember.\n\nThe girls toss their batons high into the air and spin and catch them as one. I am impressed. Sometimes I watch marching bands during the Thanksgiving Day parade, and inevitably, one or two majorettes fumble, though their poise is never broken; they simply pick up the baton and keep spinning, smile and march on.\n\nThey say a smile is contagious and boosts your mood whether or not it is genuine. These girls have practiced their smiles, yet they also look truly happy. But I can’t bring myself to smile back.\n\nI notice a girl taller than the rest, her long, silky blonde hair pulled back and ribboned at the crown of her head. She kicks her knee up and spins around with her baton. Her smile shines. What if I could smile like her?\n\nThe band pauses, but I decide to stay. It is only me watching now. The majorettes ease up; their bodies relax. They talk to one another. The girl I was watching leans over to her friend, whispers in her ear, and suddenly points directly at me. I freeze. It takes me a moment to realize she is pointing at Sam, because he is that kind of cute dog. I want to believe she is pointing at me and about to say, _We have another baton, do you want to twirl?_\n\n* * *\n\n**M. S. Reagan** , originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a writer and MFA candidate at WVU in Morgantown, West Virginia, where they are working on a memoir about being trans and disabled during the first Trump presidency. Reagan’s poetry appears in _Appalachian Review_ , and they won the Baltimore Review Summer 2025 Flash CNF Award. In 2024, Reagan was a finalist for the New Ohio Review Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction. When not writing, Reagan is most likely hanging out with Sam, a 120-pound mix of Lab, German shepherd, and mastiff. Follow them @m-s-reagan.bsky.social.\n\nThis essay is a _Short Reads_ original.\n\n* * *\n\n****Help keep**** _****Short Reads****_****going.****\nBecome a supporting subscriber or make a one-time donation.\n\nShare this essay on: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Bluesky\n\nThis issue of __Short Reads__ was 🎶 edited by Hattie Fletcher; 😃 fact-checked and proofread by Chad Vogler; 🐕 designed by Anna Hall; and 🫵 delivered to our 2,370 subscribers by Stephen Knezovich.\n\n### **From the archive**\n\n\nNov 27, 2024\n“One Thanksgiving in Maine”\nby Yelizaveta P. Renfro | The view from outside.\n\nNov 29, 2023\n“Confession”\nby Jeff Oaks | A part of me, still.\n\n######  Explore the entire Short Reads archive.",
  "title": "Twirl Girl",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-02T17:44:20.671Z"
}