The washboard dirt road bumps me farther into the acreage of the desert nursery. Thickets of scrub oak form a sound barrier, dimming the roar of traffic from the highway. My breathing slows as my anger dissipates, but my face… Continue Reading
New Year’s Eve afternoon. Like life — uncertain, threatening. Maybe it will snow, maybe it won’t. Rain? Freeze? Maybe the sun will come out. Ha. I’m walking to the market, not because we need anything but because “exercise is good… Continue Reading
Moose’s snoring is quieter than a mass shooting in a shopping mall, but not by much. Tiny shakes him. “For goodness sake, I can’t sleep.” Moose rolls towards Tiny, kisses him on the shoulder and slides a hand down his… Continue Reading
Star Shaker’s scales glittered and shone with rainbow colors under the spotlights. Her barbed tail swayed, and she flapped her tiny vestigial wings as she sang into the mic. With the backdrop of stars behind her, she looked like a… Continue Reading
The advice sounded simple. “Try changing the tone of your inner voice. Make that voice appealing, make it sexy.” After a lifetime of walking past the book in the grocery store checkout I had finally caved and bought it —… Continue Reading
“Man, we were good buddies. My dad always said he was a hard worker too. He hired Jake, my dad did. He worked like a bull too. Back then I don’t think he had much of a home life so… Continue Reading
Her father was still there. She watched as the wrinkled white sheets slowly rose with each breath — a movement so slight it seemed not to justify the word. Sometimes, she would place her head on his chest just to… Continue Reading
I’ll never forget the homeless man in Saint Christopher’s Church. That was back in my altar server days, when I was about eight or nine. No, eight, because I hadn’t had my first Holy Communion yet. We were doing a… Continue Reading
The first winter, she was ten. The world was made white. She watched the glass fog up around her face, and her nose grew numb. She closed her eyes and heard her grandmother’s voice from far away, from the summer,… Continue Reading
“Wherever we end up, it’s gotta be better than this.” Without another word, the girl climbed into the transporter. Kaya looked on as, one by one, others climbed in and jumped away. But she wasn’t convinced. Not protesting like the… Continue Reading