Content Warning: sexual assault As Laura stepped out the door of her apartment building, the air clung to her like a skintight dress. Three a.m. and still no break from the mugginess. Crossing the parking lot to her car, she thought about what the doctor had said. There was a lot of medicalese, but what it all boiled down to was that her father had been rushed to the ER with a heart attack and was in critical condition (whatever…
Walking out after services, I hold onto Gabe’s arm. The little walkway into the cemetery is littered with acorns – little ball bearings that make me choose my way carefully. Gabe steers me onto the grass, and we stand there a moment, while I catch my breath and look for Hank’s marker. I spot the cypress that is my landmark. Last year’s grass is tan and unmown. I stumble a little bit once, but my grandson’s arm holds steady. It’s…
It was a beautiful spring day for Monday market. A pretty young woman in a green dress came to my stall early. “I’d like some eggs, please, ma’am, the fresher the better. I’ve asked my William to breakfast with me. Our wedding is at midsummer.” “Please call me Maude,” I said. “I am surely not much older than you.” I had eggs, fresh from our hens, gathered this morning. I wrapped them up carefully and handed them to her. “William…
When the temporary blindness caused by the nearby lightning had passed, Sister Yolanda could make out a dark figure through the pouring rain. She watched for a few seconds as they walked towards the old metal gate in the stone walls of the convent, then hurried to make the bed in one of the two small guest rooms. They had not had anyone visit in a long time, because an improved road skirted the woods that the old road had…
I looked for you in the window of the tiny egg that Melanie gave me. She said that if I planted it in the back yard and watered it every day, a tree would grow, and when it blossomed, the scent would remind me of you. When the tree grew, the trunk was too slender for me to wrap my arms around. I reached up into the branches and your leaves brushed my face.
“Is he. . .” “Not dead, miss, although he’ll awake with a headache. Fortunately, that Grecian statue looks to have been hollow clay. Why keep such a thing above the door?” “He’s kept it there since my sister gave it to him as a gift, years ago. He looks upon it and mourns, though it be more than two weeks since she died.” “I see. The bolts seem to have been removed from the…
In my closet, there is an idol, whose name I do not know. The man at the store said it was the Virgin Mary, but I do not think so. She looks at me sometimes. Would the Blessed Mother do that? I think she just smiles on her baby or her broken son. This one watches me, not in a malevolent way. I think she is just interested. The real mother of God lives on too spiritual a plane…
The 5:51 From Providence I’m waiting for you at the station. Maybe you missed the train. Or maybe you’re ghosting me. Then, there you are. You’re tired and grimy, but you pull me into your arms. Bruce, you whisper as you kiss my ear. I missed you. Me, too, I whisper back. We walk to my 2014 Nissan. “Not taking the work car?” you joke. I smile at the thought of driving around the city with the Son of God…
When Sara got off the bus from Ellison Middle School on Friday, there was a package on the hall table for her. She kicked off her snow boots and dumped a book out of the padded mailer. She already knew what it was: a copy of Ninja Invisibility Secrets Made Simple that she’d ordered from the back of the comic book. She padded damply through the kitchen and upstairs to her room in socks which had gotten wet in the…
When did people first start living here? In this neighborhood, you mean? or on Earth? Both. I guess the Indians lived here for a long time, but I don’t know when they were first here. Why? Well, they didn’t keep written records. But why didn’t they just know what year they moved here? I don’t even know how they kept track of years back then. It was different from the way we do now. Well, so how long have there…