The first time Oscar slipped through the half-open window of Mrs. Trudell’s apartment, she almost dropped her knitting needles. The black cat stared at her with golden eyes, tail swishing like a metronome. “I don’t want a cat,” she said… Continue Reading
“I’m sorry,” said the clerk looking down on me with a sympathetic look on her face, “but we’re all out of Joy. Could I interest you in a box of Cheerfulness?” I looked at the shelf and saw the gaping… Continue Reading
“Just a minute!” I holler, wincing as I push my hands on my bed to leverage myself up. When the doorbell rings again, I repeat: “Just a minute!” Apparently, whomever it is can’t hear me, because knock, knock, knocking commences.… Continue Reading
Silence dripped from the maples in the back yard, drifted down like snow, was stirred by a passing breeze and pooled around the feet of the boy, slowly climbing his ankles, trying to hang on. He shuffled his feet, trying… Continue Reading
“I don’t understand poetry,” Sam told Leonard, his best friend since elementary school. “Yeah. Who does?” Leonard replied, chuckling. The two of them were sitting in lawn chairs in Sam’s back yard, watching the barbeque fire get hot enough for… Continue Reading
I’ve just awakened, but I already feel tired. It’s probably the jet lag, but that’s not all it is. I feel wrung out from these past few weeks. This is the third international trip I’ve taken in the past few… Continue Reading
Every year at Halloween, Dad would pull out the giant sombrero he’d won once on a trip to Mexico. While we kids would get dressed up, applying face paint, leotards, swords and sashes, to perfect our costumes, Dad would go… Continue Reading
When Zeynep was just a tiny thing, wobbling around like a just-born calf, she liked all the seasons in equal measure — the cherry blossoms, the dense summer canopies, leaf piles, the conifers strung in lights. The world was surprising… Continue Reading
Tom hardly noticed the old man. Nothing was unusual about someone sitting by the side of the bike path and enjoying the bright sunshine of the late spring day. But the man raised his head and called out, “Is this… Continue Reading
George watches Murial slurp pea soup. Murial’s wheelchair faces him from across the nursing home cafeteria filled with residents eating their lunch. Murial’s gray hair shines, but her brown eyes are vacant, and her thin lips hang open. The soup… Continue Reading