A small hand squeezed my own over our compartment’s handrail. “Look, Daddy — lellephants!” She smiled, radiantly. “I see them.” I tousled her eternally knotty hair as she continued to stare in wonder at the giant African mammals. Or were… Continue Reading
I want to swim in the ocean with her. But I can’t. She’s sitting in my lap scrolling through the images of her mother and me. The computer screen is a useless time machine that can’t change the past. The… Continue Reading
Outside, a winter storm turned the world into a wonderland of white. A strong wind whistled around the corners of the house and shook the window of the bathroom where Darcy bathed her son, William. It didn’t matter how dark… Continue Reading
It was like waking those first nights they brought him home, when she listened for the sound of him breathing in the bassinet. The silence panicked her. Then the relief, the breath that allowed her to stop imagining a tiny… Continue Reading
Arthur Norris went back to the shed to fetch gasoline for the mower. In the twilight the straight tracks of newly shaved grass looked like different shades of ribbons spilled from the spool. “Arthur!” he heard her calling. She was… Continue Reading
It started out with a scribble. As she dragged a blue crayon across a crumpled sheet of white paper. The messy scrawl was an abstract piece. But like all art, it was a mark from the artist — I am… Continue Reading
Joyce and I had been snapping at each other for weeks. No reason really, at least not one that was obvious. But after fifteen years together sometimes you just get into these things and you can’t get out until someone… Continue Reading
Mommy bursts through the door. I jump up from the bottom step. “You got one!” I squeal, spotting the box she’s carrying. She’s panting and shaking. She slams the door shut and slides the bolt across just as something crashes… Continue Reading
“Marie, what do you want to be when you grow up?” I ask my daughter. She’s lying on her stomach, slowly kicking her feet as if swimming through the thick carpet. Her small, blonde head is propped up by a… Continue Reading
Carol dreamt of flight. In sleep she flew past the city limits of her hometown, high above familiar schools and stores and offices. And up higher, where sky became space, became beyond, where there was room to fly, to spread… Continue Reading