Dear Nick, It’s been a day of snow and night and the hush of steel runners against ice, as I head south through the Arctic. I’ve taken sleigh number four (you don’t use it much) and two of the retired… Continue Reading
When Rhianna saw the first dead bird on the front step she sighed and bent down to where the bird lay on the morning’s newspaper with its wings outstretched, as if it were still flying; soaring down from the top… Continue Reading
Molly smiled when she saw the package was from her best friend Katie. Tomorrow was Molly’s birthday. Because of this pandemic they wouldn’t be able to get together for dinner. A week ago Katie had called to ask how she… Continue Reading
What she liked most about Ken Krieg? He didn’t mind she was taller or a volleyball star. Eating Buddhist cuisine in Buffalo, he told her flat as their food, “I want to marry you, work on Wall Street, and live… Continue Reading
“It’s ruined my garden,” Cheryl complained to her sister, Barbara, while replanting what she could salvage. “This was my only spot in full sun,” she said, the two of them bent on their knees in the shadow of the phallus.… Continue Reading
There’s a neat row of mason jars at the top of her pantry. Abuela’s jars, each filled to the brim with her marmalade. Carefully ladled and labelled with their year. Tied up with ribbon and a neat square of recycled… Continue Reading
When she steps up there she forgets all about them — the audience, the nay-sayers, her father, her ex-husband — all she sees are the microphone and the lights. All she feels or thinks about is the music. And then,… Continue Reading
She paused on the street, suitcase at her feet, crying under her dark glasses. She had spent an unpleasant morning packing a few rumpled clothes, old photos and a few faded letters, leaving it till almost the last minute, an hour… Continue Reading
The sink had been drinking again, Momma told me. She threw the empty bottle into the garbage and it clinked against the other bottles. That was always when Pa got mad, storming around the house, yelling and smashing things. Black… Continue Reading
I sat completely still on the couch, a statue, my hand holding the winning lottery ticket. The machine had selected seven random numbers and rewarded my indecision with a new life. My wife Shannon came out of the bedroom and… Continue Reading