Kurt looked down at the frost for a long moment. Then he took one slow step toward Dale. I’d known Kurt Ostrowski for eleven years. He’d stood at my wedding […]
Lily stopped on the top step of my porch and didn’t run into my arms. In the six weeks the kids had been coming to my little rental on Third […]
I stood in the rain while my sister called me a disgrace in front of everyone who had ever respected our family. I didn’t argue, and I didn’t explain. I […]
My cap landed in the dust six feet away from me, and my left ear wouldn’t stop ringing. “Do you have any idea who I am, you miserable little woman?” […]
The Arch My name is Will Mercer. I’m thirty-two now. But I was thirty-one when my little sister told me I wasn’t good enough to attend the wedding I’d helped […]
Cleaner The porch light was on. I stood on the bottom step of my son’s house in Boulder, Colorado, and looked at that light for a long time. It was […]
The Price of Parts I hung my work apron on the hook beside the back door. It was the same hook it had hung on for six years. Brown canvas. […]
Stop Work Authority Part 1: Twenty-Eight Days Twenty-eight days on. Twenty-eight days off. That’s the life of an offshore rig worker. You fly out by helicopter from the heliport in […]
Twenty-six years had passed since my son died, but September 30 still had a way of making the air feel heavier. I’d learned how to live around the date. You […]
I was thirteen years old the day my father threw my duffel bag into the dirt and told me to walk home. It was August, and it was hot enough […]