After a week at vacation bible school and another at science camp, you come home asking where life really began. In a snake-infested garden or the petri dish of the sea? Never one to take a hard line with an… Continue Reading
The unexpected blow knocked me to the ground on my back and I landed on the hay. Before I could get up, I had him on top of me, panting and drenching me with his repulsive alcoholic breath. I tried… Continue Reading
“I’m telling you, there was nothing in my cornfield last night except corn, and this morning there was the angel, sitting up on top of her pedestal like an oversized canary on a marble perch, looking all mopey.” “So, Mister… Continue Reading
I walked down the airplane aisle, feeling good in my favorite blue-flowered dress I had worn to work that day, trying to maneuver my carry-on bag so that it did not hit the people who were already seated. The smug… Continue Reading
Shelly loved Mama’s garden. It didn’t have as many pretty flowers as Gramma’s, but it also didn’t have so many thorns. Shelly hated thorns. Their vindictive little spikes would scrape her arms and legs whenever she tried to explore, patterning… Continue Reading
His face was almost expressionless as he was watching the violinist perform on the stage of the small theatre. His eyes were watching the musician’s every move and inside them you could discern a desire so intense it could top… Continue Reading
I have some advice for all you struggling parents out there, and even those who aren’t struggling. No matter what, love your kids, even if they’re ungrateful little monsters. Yeah, yeah, I know. It goes without saying. Well, sometimes you… Continue Reading
Emma Hawthorne loved the old and picturesque, and authorities and guidebooks agreed that Dartwood was one of the best-preserved sixteenth-century manor houses in southern England. Erected on the site of a suppressed Benedictine monastery by one of Henry VIII’s favourites… Continue Reading
In the river when I floated free, friendly fellow fish warned me of human and hook. I am proud to say I did not believe them. I knew air-world existed above water-world. I knew about bear. I saw bear’s massive… Continue Reading
There are days when the shadows at water’s edge corral nothing but a chiaroscuro stippling of the pond’s murky surface; on other days, they gather curious creatures, some predatory. Today, the shadows cache a twelve-year-old girl, crouched beneath a willow… Continue Reading