The woman appeared in a park foaming with dogwoods, crawled from the playground tunnel to stretch and open her bones. Tall, angular—like an elk, they’d later say. On Main she’s greeted by cats, their wails heard blocks away. Terrible, says one of the early drinkers …
It was half past seven on the three hundred and fourth day of the year when I realized my children were gone. I stood there with the door open, the almost empty bowl of Halloween candy on my hip. On my front porch stood an …
The river rarely froze over, but in 1938 it did. The frigid air from the north covered the land until the mercury dropped to minus nine. They warned us not to cross the ice on foot. Little did we listen. Immigrant kids, we boxed our …
It was the season of believing the doctors. Because of medical uncertainties, we had skipped vacation the previous year, so this time we splurged on a ten-day trip to Italy. Instead of teeming Rome, where we’d stayed as grungy grad students two decades before, we …
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The man’s voice startled me, and I began to smile stupidly. I’m not sure that I was daydreaming, fantasizing there on the pavement, but I suppose that I was. “Hello, Mr. Abbott,” he said. “Better weather than the last time you were here.” I watched …
Now and then a distant rifle shot rings through the mountain air. Henry and Anita left the windy shore and found an old tottering picnic table beneath a spruce tree. Anita kicked off her shoes. He saw she had blisters on her heels and …
The entity reading this book (the reader) takes all responsibility for any and all accidents, mishaps, lawsuits, environmental damage, loss of income, loss of spousal affection, etc., etc. that may occur as a result of reading this book. All characters are fictional, the figments …
Mark Antony was wrong, I believe, when he said that the evil that men do lives after them and that the good is oft interred with their bones. Or maybe it is that way for men. It is not for women, for Miss Clara. I …
You live in a city where food poisoning is commonplace. Granddad tells you that the ice blocks you drool over are made from footbath water. It doesn’t stop you from eyeing the popsicles your classmates are devouring, but you dare not take a bite. The …