Sally limped into the shoe store with a hop-shuffle. A passerby had slid the store’s business card into her hand when her heel broke in a sewer grate. She wouldn’t go to her divorce proceedings on a broken shoe. The… Continue Reading
You can’t know darkness until you’re trapped deep in a mine, on the wrong side of the tangle of rock and timbers blocking you in with your crew. After the thunderous wave of dust and panic settled, half a dozen… Continue Reading
People’s obsession with goals, mission statements, work objectives. I never got it. Me, I followed the path of least resistance. I went to the first college that took me and accepted the first job offer. At the office, I did… Continue Reading
I pull dresses and pants, jackets and blouses from the closet and stuff them into plastic trash bags. Given the pandemic, I couldn’t find a charity to take Pearl’s clothes even though, for all the COVID patients she treated, she… Continue Reading
Honey, I’m going vegan. That’s right, I’m turning over a new leaf. (Even my puns are plant-based, now.) You cringe. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Especially now?” Don’t worry, you don’t have to “go” with me. And why… Continue Reading
One Husky puppy wears a charcoal mask and has a tail like a question mark covered in frost. He patrols the yard’s perimeter barking at passing planes and searching for escape routes under the fence, every bit the wolf I… Continue Reading
The fire had been burning for eight hours, but the earth was still not soft enough. Just as Harold predicted. It had been an unforgiving winter: sub-zero temperatures for months, ice storms, and buckets of snow. It had taken Harold… Continue Reading
I confronted Mr Creepings on the stairs. “Have you seen my dog?” His thin lips twisted into a smile. “Did you lose your Pomeranian?” “She’s vanished,” I said. “I think she was killed…” Mr Creepings scratched dirt from under his… Continue Reading
I took up smoking at fifteen, and quit at twenty, thirty-two, and, finally, again at forty-one. A week after that, I bought a dog from a guy living illegally in a run-down house over the interstate. I’d gone over there… Continue Reading
I first saw it on my way to work, shivering in a corner between my building and the next. It tracked me with big brown mournful eyes as I passed. I hesitated, but there was nothing I could do and… Continue Reading