The Black Suitcase My mother had always been a cheerful, slightly overweight woman. That’s how I’d describe her if you asked. Round face. Soft arms. A laugh that came from […]
“Did Ethan do something to upset you?” I said it standing in Janet’s front hallway, still holding the plate of lemon bars I’d brought as an excuse to knock on […]
Old Things The message arrived at exactly 2:13 a.m. I remember the time because I hadn’t been sleeping. The ceiling fan turned slowly above me. The old farmhouse settled into […]
The sound of metal cracking still echoes in my head. Sometimes I hear it when I’m falling asleep. Sometimes when a car door slams too hard in a parking lot. […]
The woman had been following us through the department store for almost ten minutes. I noticed her first in Housewares. Late fifties, maybe. A tan raincoat buttoned all the way […]
Forty minutes after I parked, the sign for row B4 was still standing exactly where I’d left it. My car wasn’t. I stood beside the cart return with a bag […]
“You need to figure your life out, Beth. I can’t take on your problems right now.” My mother said it without even looking at the car. Eleven days after I […]
“Mrs. Dunn,” Linda said carefully, “can you tell me what’s written on the back of that ticket?” I set my glass of iced tea down on the porch rail. The […]
Gordon set his coffee cup down on my kitchen table. He folded his hands the way he does before grace. And he told me the house I was sitting in […]
I saw it in my headlights on a Thursday night in September. I was coming up our lane at a quarter to ten with a bag of dirty hospital laundry […]