My white knuckles grip the safety bar. Heights, speed, lack of control– things I avoid at all costs. I connect the video call, phone shaking. His gaunt, beautiful face calms my nerves. “I knew you wouldn’t deny a dying man… 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
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 saw a man with a Black Flag tattoo at my dispensary. It was on his leg, nice and faded. I’ve got the same one on my wrist from when I turned eighteen – two decades ago, back when we… Continue Reading
Thirty minutes past his mother’s scheduled appointment time, Milovan looks to the clock, pleads with it, says a prayer. He sees that it tilts to the left so that the “1” sits where the “12” should be. Or maybe his… Continue Reading
Three days before Christmas, Mary slipped in the shower and cracked her head on the soap dish. I found her half an hour later. The water was long cold and her skin had turned purplish, like an overripe plum. Her… Continue Reading
The clock strikes five. I run a finger down the window pane through the condensation. Outside, the unseasonably warm winter winds bustle through the trees, and naked branches dance and sing in the last sad throes of death. They say… Continue Reading
“Our health plan doesn’t cover this.” “I know, but it’s the only hope you’ve got. The doctors are saying that it’s a serious case, that your liver will fail within weeks and that you’ll lose brain function with it. It’s… Continue Reading
The wrens came in early March, building a nest of twigs within the ivy that grew in a twisted cascade from the old butter churn planter in Barbara’s sunroom. The old woman took to watching them, her face hovering scant… Continue Reading
The view from the seventh floor is impressive. Tiny ants crawl over each other heading home from work, picking up their kids at daycare, or meeting spouses for dinner, no doubt. So average and mundane they are — so ordinary.… Continue Reading