On the way home from a tour of looking at colleges, a milestone trip on the parental journey, we encounter a sign warning of construction delays ahead and though it is already late at night and we are only halfway …
When she first cried out, we swung our gazes to the sky and took a collective breath. “There they are!” she shouted, her voice rising, like an offshore swell, disruptive, harrowing. We shuffled about, our eyes scanning all of the …
“And then there were two,” my father whispers.
*
Seven siblings. Lucky number seven. Seven deadly sins. The day God rested.
Six months apart. Six feet under. Six degrees of separation. Six six six, the end of times.
Five dead. …
When I opened the large, gray trunk my older cousin gave me for my ninth birthday, my reaction was to stare in awe. It housed the most beautiful doll I had ever seen, plus her wardrobe. Her long, thick, golden …
Dick and Jane? I never knew them. When I was learning to read at Public School 102 in Queens, our books were all about Jim and Judy. I liked living in their world and for years I remembered them with …
“These jeans are almost indestructible,” the salesman bragged to my mom as she pulled and tugged on the inseam of my pants. She pushed her fingers between the waist band and my stomach and pulled upward as if she was …
She has not shown up. An hour into MORP and Lesley is nowhere to be seen. Dispirited, I wander over to a group of breakdancers in the corner of the gym converted into the dance venue. I watch them as they recklessly …
The day after my grandmother died, I stayed home from school. She’d had a heart attack when my parents and I were on a picnic at Bear Mountain State Park. By the time we heard, it was too late. Although …
Because of some poor life choices I had made before the fall of 2005, I was working through the emotional pain my choices had left me. I was talking with a counselor once a week, and I had a cadre …
“They did it again!” I shriek. Anything in flight fascinates my three-year old twin brothers, especially our family’s personal possessions flying out windows. Lying in the grass nine floors down is my fairy-godmother costume skirt.
I sprint out of the …