Ours was a curious love. He would come every day, spending his time working on what I heard him call his “Classic Chevy”; a gargantuan beast of rust and steel, he spoke to it like a female. And I was… Continue Reading
I finish tightening the final clamp securing Sara to the rack, and step back. The light summer sundress clings lovingly to her figure just like I remembered, but all the holes and dirt smears take away from her attractiveness rather… Continue Reading
He entered the metro and slumped into a molded seat across from my wheelchair. I assumed he was homeless. He looked bad and smelled worse. It was the sort of funk that creeps up on a person — the kind… Continue Reading
The heady scent of caramelizing onions wafted through the Cooking Network’s kitchen studio, although it was well past midnight. Mandy Sweet looked up from the baking table, where she’d been kneading bread dough. “Remember Andre’s rule for goulash,” she said.… Continue Reading
There are no grizzly bears in Michigan. I used to tell myself this when I was out alone, bringing the horses in from the pasture. Sometimes, it helped. When the moon was bright, and the animals quiet, it helped. But… Continue Reading
Mom had already been crying when she found me sitting on the concrete floor of the garage with a hammer in my hand. I’d been smashing marbles. All of them — the clear ones with the sparkly centers that I… Continue Reading
Carlisle never believed the stories about Dr. Magda Boanak he’d heard around the campus. There was no way she had walked the length of the Trans-Siberian railroad as a teenager, and no way she had worked her way through grad… Continue Reading
Clarissa sipped at her chilled Semillon and tried hard to make sense of the exhibit in front of her. It was entitled “Inside the Mind of a Critic” and it consisted of some entrails, haphazardly arranged over a broken computer… Continue Reading
“Mommy, I don’t want to go to Mrs. Winter’s.” “But you love Mrs. Winter.” “Mr. Winter scares me.” “Why?” “At nap time Mr. Winter says if we don’t be good and take long naps he’s gonna eat us. Then he… Continue Reading
Mrs. Alsgood glanced at her distorted reflection in the microwave door, adjusted her rimless glasses, and pushed back a stray lock of gray hair. With a sigh, she adjusted the ruffled apron around her ample middle and surveyed the room. Sun… Continue Reading