She hated him. Granny’s favourite. He’d pushed her and hurt her, and she’d said something nasty to him and repeated it several times. Her grandmother had put her hand over her mouth, spoken about soap and water and vile language… Continue Reading
Edgar slid through the door of the bookshop minutes before Lady Randolph would flip the sign from “open” to “closed.” Wintergreen and cigarette scented air huffed out between her loose lips as he walked past the counter. He rubbed his… Continue Reading
Romo always had considered his afternoon nap a luxury, a perk of retirement. But one day that nap was more an escape, a means to knit a suddenly raveled sleeve of care. A doctor had told Romo that he would… Continue Reading
The dilemma — I knew even as a nine-year-old boy to be a “good problem” — was I’d unwrapped a blue plastic horse from Mrs. Golding during the fourth-grade classroom Christmas party and all the girls wanted horses, as girls… Continue Reading
Shari rolls off of me, wipes a drop of sweat from my forehead and says, “Sometimes I feel like I could melt right through you.” I nod, breathe deep and close my eyes. “Really,” she says. “Don’t you feel that… Continue Reading
Of course not, Momma’d never hurt me. She never raised a hand to me, never had a reason to. Every day she’d tell me, “Jenny, you’re such a good girl. You’re such a wonderful little girl,” and she would buy… Continue Reading
Carrying the water-stained box of wineglasses he had found under a stack of Bach Bimonthly in the basement, Simon stepped into the cramped galley kitchen of the decaying townhouse N.C. State University provided him and his wife, Tara. He’d hoped for… Continue Reading
“Tell me how the world ends,” Ani says. Michael shakes his head. “Some things,” he says, “it’s better not to know.” They sit across from one another, at a table in the back of a dimly-lit bar. His hands are… Continue Reading
Doll in hand, Sophie dances along the flagstone path into the garden, and pulls herself up onto the lichen-spotted wooden bench. “Are you there?” she calls, and waits for an answer. She sits, wordless, knees pulled up in front of… Continue Reading
The shotgun blast that rendered my face unrecognizable as human was reported quite sanitarily in the news. “A man was shot in the face with a shotgun last night during a convenience store robbery gone bad. Doctors at Lutheran Hospital… Continue Reading