He sits down next to me at the picnic table, his back against the red-and-white checkered tabletop, his long legs extending out on the grass. He turns to me and smiles the friendly smile of a man who is comfortable… Continue Reading
Willy woke up early that morning. It was going to be a big day. He looked around the room for his uniform, but couldn’t find it, so he put on the same clothes he had worn yesterday. It didn’t matter,… Continue Reading
Mom’s ashes are in the urn on the table, and I smile with my lips at people who hold pieces of her. I am greedy for every fragment, but hugs are extortion. “She never got to be a grandmother,” one… Continue Reading
Marlene came home to an empty house and a scrawled note from Stanley. “Meet me at the duck pond at 6:30.” Of course she knew which duck pond. During their nearly twenty-six years of marriage, they’d only ever visited the… Continue Reading
Tiny is the first female marine on the new 1911 base. I spot her the day she arrives, hair long, dog tags fresh and shiny. She has no idea what she’s getting into on this base, or maybe she does.… Continue Reading
Bridget grew up hearing legends of the stone angel that guarded the graveyard, but she’d never needed her help until now. Draped in a flowing robe with wings outstretched in a righteous fury, her gaze dared passersby to disturb her… Continue Reading
Not long after my release, I started buying fighting fish. Now I can’t stop myself from stopping off at the pet store practically every day and buying one or two more. I live in a house with seventy-two aquaria and… Continue Reading
Irene often felt as if she had one foot in this world and one foot in another. This other world was a “spiritual world,” a kind of invisible cloud that surrounded everything, and she would sometimes commend herself for having… Continue Reading
The third time I walked past the library, I noticed she was still sitting there… reading glasses pushed into her short curly hair, tray of cupcakes in front of her… alone. “Hello,” I said, sitting down on the seat closest… Continue Reading
The map on the wall had already begun to slip, curling at one edge as it pulled away from the painted white brick. “So, that’s where she is,” his best friend Evan muttered as Judd grabbed two cold beers from… Continue Reading