“Auntie Mary, you’re hurting my hand.” I was jolted to the present by the complaints of my niece. Her voice cut through all the noise of the fair that surrounds us. Josie is trying to tug her hand free from… Continue Reading
The penguin sitting on the egg is a lesson in trust, love, or compulsion. Instinct. He sits on the egg, wind whipping and pulling at his feathers, snow in his eyes. His body is encased in a freezing crust. All… Continue Reading
Purple sugar dribbles down my finger. I suck it off before a drop can hit the ants on the pavement. It’s a hot day, but I don’t know, maybe you would have called it warm. Even when I was sweating,… Continue Reading
Every year at Halloween, Dad would pull out the giant sombrero he’d won once on a trip to Mexico. While we kids would get dressed up, applying face paint, leotards, swords and sashes, to perfect our costumes, Dad would go… Continue Reading
On the train between Newton Abbot and Topsham, Jimmy Vincetore was thinking about the same journey he had made the previous week, same line, same stops, same time of the night. The main difference was that last week he had… Continue Reading
During our occasional morning recitals in the auditorium, I sat in the front row of the school orchestra. That’s where the teacher always wanted the cellos to sit. You could look out at the audience if you wanted, but mostly… Continue Reading
As Mica walked along the shore, he picked up pebbles with streaks through the middle. Following a path of driftwood led him to a gray cliff veined with white and a streak of gold. Mica knew it was probably pyrite.… Continue Reading
When Zeynep was just a tiny thing, wobbling around like a just-born calf, she liked all the seasons in equal measure — the cherry blossoms, the dense summer canopies, leaf piles, the conifers strung in lights. The world was surprising… Continue Reading
Today was my birthday. My family and friends came for dinner, Charlotte made a cake with those stupid candles you can’t blow out, and then posted a video of me trying to do it, on Facebook. Great gifts, good food,… Continue Reading
Your boyfriend made a big show of the real-deal, intricately carved ivory lighter he got as a gift at work. And you wanted to say something about how elephants are endangered, but he was so thrilled about the novelty of… Continue Reading