We’re screaming down the highway in a VW bug and I’m sitting in the back seat, my ass burning. Will driving. Martin shotgun. Me doomed. “Um, guys, I think there’s something wrong back here,” I stammer. “What’s up, dummy?” Will,… Continue Reading
In her English class, Gillian was assigned an ode. She wrote to the jagged Zorro scar above her knee from the August night she taught Benny to surf in the rickety trailer camper their father towed. They’d been banished from… Continue Reading
The Knights of Columbus Barbecue signals the end of summer in Currie Valley. The second weekend in August, the K of C fills several acres around their headquarters with carnival rides, live music, games and food. It was Saturday night… Continue Reading
Natalia’s wrinkled, spotty hands fluttered over the piano keys like a butterfly dancing on the breeze. Elegant, beautiful, serene, the sound of the aging instrument felt like a long lost friend. Her favorite was The Seasons by Tchaikovsky. Each movement… Continue Reading
Our house on the cliff had damp walls that huddled over us as we slept. Ma and Mary shared the bed in the loft while the rest of us kids slept below on pallets we kept behind the stove during… Continue Reading
Sometimes a girl can wait so long that love goes bony and cold. Take, for example, my Harry. Another Valentine’s gone. The usual chocolates and roses. I will eat them and smell them. They won’t be a ring. I will… Continue Reading
The day started tense. Not what Marie wanted on her day off work. The family all knew that there was to be a “proper” Thanksgiving dinner. And then Dad said he was going to join the lads at Dave’s to… Continue Reading
I read an article recently about harp seals. How their mothers abandon them just twelve days after they’re born, left to the elements, floating on ice in the frigid ocean. Biologists say it teaches the seal pups survival, lessons of… Continue Reading
My dad never learned how to swim. As a kid, it always made me nervous because he had to drive over a bridge to get to work. What if he drove into the lake? Or what if he pulled over… Continue Reading
Cass stood at the top of the steps and listened. Her mother and her sister were downstairs in the living room, watching the news. The news story drifted up the stairs like a cold draft. “…miraculous escape from the clutches… Continue Reading