I am perturbed with a particular selling company asking me, “Did the product you ordered meet your expectations?”
I ordered a gasket.
“Please tell us about what you like or don’t like about the product.”
Likes: It’s brown, it fits, …
Thea woke up to find a man sitting in the corner of her room. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, and he was wearing a polo with jeans. His large body was curled into a ball, with his knees …
Nathaniel had three days to live.
Cancer, they said.
It had begun in his stomach and was gallivanting up his esophagus at a harrowing speed.
“Fuggit!” he said, unable to say the ck. It hurt these days to say …
In the staffroom Bev waved a packet of ginger kisses under her colleagues’ noses. “Get a whiff of these. They’re to die for.”
Saffron took one. “First ginger kiss I’ve had in years. My father used to make them. …
First thing she asks, as always: “Wheredja get the idea for that song?” I’m a composer, y’see. “From life,” I tell her, as always. “Whatcha mean?” the second thing she asks, as always, but now behind an “I Can’t Breathe” …
1985, Russia, Soviet Union
I gasped, wrapped my hands around my stomach, and curled into a ball, trying to catch my breath. It was as if someone had stabbed me in the back. The waves of pain rolled through my …
Sooty waits in the hall, knowing the sound of my key in the door. He’s longhaired and handsome, with golden eyes and a dash of Persian somewhere in his ancestry. Feather-duster tail waving, he escorts me into the living room …
It’s late winter in New England. Historically that’s the hungry season, when the ice house, the root cellar and pantry are near empty; the ground is still frozen and the locals wait for spring. But our home is blessed when …
Kristin stopped typing to breathe. She did her best to work, but when she thought about Asha’s illness the shaking started—and the difficulty breathing. Her mind felt stretched and warped and letters on the screen blurred. She heard her heart …
There was none.
I was twelve in 1954 when I figured out the connection between sex and procreation. Before that, there were no fatherly talks on the birds and the bees. Instead, lots of fantastical tales such as cartoons featuring …