“They say He lives in Tibet,” she told me. She was still digging in the tan, dusty ground with her hands, even though we hadn’t found another turnip in almost an hour. “Where’s that?” I asked. The shaded tree bark… Continue Reading
Wife #11 arrives for her shift, struggling out of the rideshare with a bulky chrysalis of luggage. In photos, the house had been impressive. In person, breathtaking. A citadel of concrete and glass. Unlike anything back home. Amika waits, tugging… Continue Reading
Tuesday morning Affie walks into class with her arm wrapped in a white cloth. A bruise darkens her cheekbone. Cuts run across her palms. Her shirt is wrinkled and her short hair sticks up. “Julie,” she says, waving as sunlight… Continue Reading
I held my wings in my hands, reaching them back toward the alux — that tiny protrusion of bones fairies have near their shoulder blades — when three things happened at once. A gust of wind shrieked through the trembling… Continue Reading
Friends, it’s quarter to midnight on September 1st, and I promised Tim (EDF’s amazing senior editor and an all-around star of a human being) that I would get on here and post something to acknowledge that — sometimes limping and… Continue Reading
The sun had long disappeared behind the ridgeline, leaving behind a faded orange smear in the western sky. Autumn in the highlands of the North feels like something older than time — earth and air whisper in ways words have… Continue Reading
I’m floating and untethered, adrift in a place I can only describe in loose terms. I perceive the world in colours now. Pale blues and greens and flecks of deep crimson. The reddish freckles in my vision are calibration markers.… Continue Reading
I was sitting at the bar with my supervisor, Maggie, still the prettiest person I’ve ever known. Our elbows rested on the counter, arms like toothpicks holding up tired heads, drinks tucked beneath our chins. We spun those tiny black… Continue Reading
It is somewhere in North India, the kind of place with endless dusty roads that lead to villages with no name. Sleepy pockets that are hours from anywhere. Now it’s full of uniformed men, and machines digging, lifting, dragging. No… Continue Reading
I hated to admit it, but Lee was usually right. Not always, mind you. No one is always right. He would sometimes say stupid things like “I only got Earl Grey because I could’ve sworn you said you liked Earl… Continue Reading