It was the silence that bothered me the most. The silence, after he took the hound and went hunting, was maddening. Yes, we certainly had more land here in South Dakota, but what good was land? Yes, it yields crops …
Technically speaking, I suppose my superpower is invisibility, but I like to think of myself as just a hard-working thief. Like many of you, only blessed with a special gift. Dottie calls me a klepto, and she should know. I’ve …
You sit at the desk, staring at the numbers. The numbers. The endless goddamned numbers, all swaddled in parentheses, as if negative numbers have to be shielded from the good numbers. The ones not on the page this quarter, or …
When his ten-year-old cracked a joke to his expense that touched a nerve, he didn’t let him drink for a day. We were hiking the Taranaki, his choice, sweat tickled my eyebrows.
The afternoon was steep, difficult to breathe in. …
You don’t try to stay pretty any more, my husband says. He’s right. We stopped trying to be what the other wanted us to be years ago, back when our love was giant, him handsome and employed, me, a …
I wear my wedding dress every day.
Mama filled me each day, carefully to the top using her special funnel. I slept on a glass shelf. As my lot in life, I didn’t mind but when I got married, things …
“I don’t make the rules, I just follow them,” the mayor said apologetically. The village of French farmers looked at the man, appraising his reasoning and cowardice. Now that German soldiers occupied their village, they were required to identify their …
When sister Nancy dies, people foist her voice.
Nancy would want you to be a lawyer, put aside fantasy.
Nancy was soft. Why can’t you control your temper?
What they don’t say: Nancy loved cruising through wealthy neighborhoods blasting Elvis. …
They had been walking for hours, yet were within a mile of the home they’d each known intimately for eighteen years. The forest had miles of trails; there was no shortage of paths. They wound through maple and oak clusters, …
The end was nigh.
His majesty had entrusted the Commander:
Plan the way to victory.
Call all forces to arms.
Attack… counterattack… defend.
Make unthinkable sacrifices where necessary, but…
Above all else – PREVAIL!
‘Twas not, however, to be.
First …