The Last Load Vern stood by the grain bin and watched us load the pickup. He didn’t come over. He didn’t say a word. It was dusk on a Thursday […]
Trading Secrets Part One: Tuesday My mom shook my hand yesterday while I was still holding the brush she used on my hair every morning before school. It’s a wooden […]
The Lavender Dress Part One: Two Girls in One Bed My daughters shared a bed until Emily was eleven. They didn’t have to. We had a three-bedroom house in Bloomington, […]
My phone buzzed at 2:14 in the afternoon, on the third day. Caleb was finally asleep. It had taken him almost an hour. Every time his eyes closed, a machine […]
The soldier held the salute long enough for everyone in the driveway to understand that it wasn’t for show. “Major,” he said, with his eyes fixed on me. “The convoy […]
I saw my wife’s face on a pillow in a stranger’s back window. At first, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. It was a Thursday afternoon in […]
The Back Table Part One: The Note My grandson, Caleb, is nine years old. He has his father’s ears, which stick out a little. He has his father’s habit of […]
“If you mention my name again, I promise you’ll be going straight back to prison.” My sister said it calmly, the way you’d tell someone their shoe was untied. Then […]
“Slow down, sweetheart!” my mother-in-law laughed. “You’re getting a little too curvy!” A few relatives laughed with her. My son, Oliver, froze with his hand halfway to the cake plate. […]
The ticket cost two dollars, and I almost didn’t buy it. I want to begin there, because for a long time afterward people asked me what it felt like to […]