Summer days dozens of boys jumped off the train bridge. Their skin was pale at the beginning of summer, deep gold by the end. They shouted, laughed, shoving each other, horsing around, hurling insults and challenges. When a train came,… Continue Reading
It wasn’t that she hated the piece. She didn’t. Really. It just didn’t belong in the living room. It clashed with the room’s light and airy design she had so carefully created. Early one Sunday morning, while he was still… Continue Reading
I’m not sure how long Henry has been using my peppermint foot butter as a deodorant. I can’t blame him; the packaging is almost identical to his stick. I mentioned it to him and he shrugged and rubbed it under… Continue Reading
PROLOGUE Dew and shattered bottles sparkle on the morning grass. Dirt scabs the stretch of green in war zones at the bases, homeplate, the pitcher’s mound. A place of heroes and victims. The echoes of past conflict reverberate here. A… Continue Reading
I’m imagining the taste of chocolate. All different kinds. Dark chocolate. Milk chocolate. Mint chocolate. Chocolate-covered cherries. Peanut brittle with a chocolate glaze. I’m angry. Davey doesn’t share his chocolates, only gives me the ones he doesn’t like, only gives… Continue Reading
Somewhere between sculpting spray and shampoo, he blips onto my radar. Shiny white hair like a quartz stone. A shabby olive cardigan and standard brown grandpa slacks. In a breath, he levels up from another faceless shadow in the background… Continue Reading
“There it is!” I pointed and Elsie wriggled back into me. We splashed our feet, soaking the hems of our dresses, giggling and pretend-squirming away. But then we dipped our toes back in, waiting to see it again: slimy skin,… Continue Reading
Louisa was washing her hands after spreading yards of mulch when she noticed it: the diamond in her wedding ring was gone. Why hadn’t she taken it off first, or worn gloves? The jeweler eyed the ring’s fractured prong. “Was… Continue Reading
When doctors deliver bad news, they travel in packs. They sweep into the ward, in groups of three or four, to relay test results, to tell you that your course of treatment has been unsuccessful, that some measure of you… Continue Reading
Bake a loaf of bread for your father, for your mother. If you create enough silent acts, you’ll keep yourself from screaming. Wash the dishes fold the laundry feed the chickens mow the grass plow the barely-thawed soil dig your… Continue Reading