“You look terrible.” “Thanks.” Edwin drops down onto the park bench beside Miles. “I haven’t been sleeping well.” “Bad dreams?” “Not exactly. I mean, yeah. I don’t know. Maybe exhausting is a better word. Do you… Do you get an… Continue Reading
“This used to be a pirate’s cove, you know.” The water lapped against the side of the boat as the old man lifted the oars out of the water, resting his arms. The boy looked up from the golden wrapped… Continue Reading
Honey, I’m going vegan. That’s right, I’m turning over a new leaf. (Even my puns are plant-based, now.) You cringe. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Especially now?” Don’t worry, you don’t have to “go” with me. And why… Continue Reading
Westwood Elementary student arrested with gun at school. No injuries. Phones ding and buzz mid-meeting with the news alert. Sharp breaths and low groans ricochet around the table. Everyone turns to me. Westwood is my son Kiel’s school. Naturally, I… Continue Reading
“You not can to eat Chicken a Sea tuna fish in a Friday,” I heard Nona say to my mother in the kitchen. Nona is the Italian word for grandmother. My Nona lived on the other side of our double… Continue Reading
Oscar is watching clothes in the washing machine’s round window. The rumble is a daily background white noise. He’s almost as transfixed by its turning as Tilly is by cartoons on the telly. Sometimes, I stare with him. Mostly, I… Continue Reading
Jane, my best friend ever since junior high, cornered me after work to ask what was going on. She hadn’t seen nor heard from me in weeks. She and others must have left me a million text messages. I never… Continue Reading
How could anyone sleep through that? He sounded like an asthmatic chainsaw. The sound wasn’t the worst of it, though. It was those gaps, when the sound ceased, where she hoped that maybe, just maybe he’d stopped — snoring, breathing.… Continue Reading
Others decide things for me, because whatever I decide turns out wrong. It’s all about knowing limits, and I can’t stop at the edges. I associate mainly with other sullied, stigmatized transgressors. I spent two years at the Forensic Psychiatric… Continue Reading
Juanita eases the old woman into the rocker, its tiny nails tightly securing the branches and twigs that form its construction. The slats of the chairback shape the old woman’s spine, sitting her as straight as she’d been, so many… Continue Reading