Maren didn’t notice me until I was almost near enough to whisper in her ear. “Ma’am, the store is closing now,” I stated. “You will have to leave your items here and resume your shopping tomorrow.”
Maren Markham’s squeal made …
When I make the mistake of looking at the cashier’s face at GreatMart, I see his right eye slide down his cheek. I leave my bags and rush out. Driving home, I avoid glimpsing myself in the rearview mirror.
I’ve …
Genilee had made seven masks, all floral—two of which reversed to classic black, suitable for formal occasions, should she ever again have one. She had a standing order for grocery delivery, used alcohol wipes on mail and package deliveries, and …
“Respect is an invention of people who want to cover up the empty place where love should be.” —Leo Tolstoy
“Your eyes,” the boy whispers. “I could fall in love looking into your eyes, Alice.”
My name is not …
The little girl listened to men approach on the stairs as she worked a sodden scrub brush along a dirty tread near the landing. Three men, by her guess. One of the pairs of feet belonged to the building super. …
My father always told me that the most important thing in owning your own business is inventory. He opened up this liquor store, and I swear to god, he could tell you exactly how many cases of Miller Lite he …
1968: Shipwrecked
In the summer of 1968, right after my mother’s latest relationship catastrophe, my sisters and I found ourselves in a two-bedroom apartment on the south side of Nashville, bewildered shipwreck survivors washed up on a beach after a …
“As I said, I drove to the house around 5 p.m. and noticed nothing unusual.”
It had been at least ten years since I’d been there, for my mother’s funeral, and even then I could barely stomach it. Two days …
Sheila is awake in the middle of the night as usual. Once long ago, she found her mother up in the middle of the night; having her secret cigarette. Sheila crawled into her lap and they sat there together in …
The footbrake on Jim’s Mazda squeaked as he brought the car to a stop. He looked up at the house across the road as he switched off the engine. A memory flooded his mind: him and his father out the …