A new year has dawned and there are dinosaurs in the streets of Vienna. I climb from the underground station, up the wide, worn, stone stairs. The icy fingers of a Vienna January dance down the open promenade of Mariahilfer… Continue Reading
What was I expecting when I pulled into the driveway: a Victorian Gothic pile looming like the house behind the Bates Motel? It was a yellow ranch-style house with a tidy lawn. Nothing about its prosaic exterior suggested the Monster… Continue Reading
My sister Bailey’s breathing is steady at night. I wait for it to change from shallow to the deep breaths of full R.E.M. She sleeps on her side. Her shoulder forms the smoky mountains sloping gently under the sheet. The… Continue Reading
Something in the refrigerator smells sour-oniony and off, she realizes as the door shuts. She’ll have to take care of it tomorrow. Not now. Now that the door is shut, she cannot open it again. She doesn’t want to start… Continue Reading
Today, Ash Wednesday, has been declared No Smoking Day to help those giving up for Lent. There is no Mass in our little hamlet because the local priest looks after seventeen parishes. At reception I check in as a visitor… Continue Reading
She always thought of brown sugar when her feet sank just an inch or so into warm, slightly damp sand. This sand, this beach was no different. He had asked her to go for a walk and her parents had… Continue Reading
Grace knew it was inevitable. The second her husband returned home from his deployment, his eyes tired and voice dull, it was clear it was only a matter of time. Joshua spoke then, but his words scarcely reached her. She… Continue Reading
Martha, the nurse wakes me up at the crack of dawn. She helps me to the bathroom. She’s holding the IV and I’m dragging the two cheese sticks I’ve got for legs. Every step feels like it’s going to be… Continue Reading
The butterflies were in Anna’s head, not in her stomach — a swarm of glorious, golden images she couldn’t seem to suppress, even when she told herself to count sheep, or recite nonsense rhymes, to try and lull herself to… Continue Reading
I want to swim in the ocean with her. But I can’t. She’s sitting in my lap scrolling through the images of her mother and me. The computer screen is a useless time machine that can’t change the past. The… Continue Reading