My sister was thirteen when she died. All crooked and soft white like a dogwood flower floating on the water. I heard my mother sobbing on the phone that she had broken her neck nearly to a ninety-degree angle, a… Continue Reading
One swing of the bat and a frozen rope laced foul from the barrel of a 32-ounce bat beaned my Dad straight in the left temple, and he crumpled in my lap. It was opening day. I was ten years… Continue Reading
My spaceship lands in Australia and I come out with a big gun, to shoot lions. Mommy won’t let me have a gun. Mommy asked me where I wanted to go on vacation. I said somewhere where there’s no relatives.… Continue Reading
Inside the hay maze, it was complete darkness after the first turn. I would’ve gone with him, but it was difficult to fit my whole body in the tunnel. Stacked wall to the ceiling with bales of hay, the entryway… Continue Reading
We zig-zag along a crooked stone bridge towards the tavern. Mist blankets the water, which is riotous with koi, though it’s a clear day elsewhere — a hologrammic projection of the weather from hundreds of years ago. Our daughter, Ruyi,… Continue Reading
Our brief interview involved more cannibalism than I would have guessed. At the river with my kids, on the last day of summer, and my son is picking up rocks along the shore finding snakes and wolf spiders hauling egg… Continue Reading
We all know toddlers can be picky eaters. This can be a challenge to any parent in the best of times. During the zombie apocalypse, this personality quirk can become well-nigh impossible to deal with. So when my little Mortimer… Continue Reading
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