They were the last two of my grandmother’s babies. Close as twins. One with flaming red hair and beautiful green eyes. The other, a blond Adonis. At seventeen and nineteen, they were coddled as the babies of the family, and praised by all for their good looks. It was on a rainy night. They...
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First grade was in a basement halfway under ground. The cafeteria was down the hall a bit. The hallway had a distinct smell that originated from the kitchen. I get a whiff of it now and then in other buildings I enter. That smell always takes me back. There was a row of windows...
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The family had moved back to town. The scuttlebutt: Fourteen-year-old Teresa had gone to have a baby. …Teresa pushed a baby carriage down the sidewalk as the fake-smiling Kyla Jean approached. “Aww! Can I see?” Teresa only shrugged. Kyla Jean greedily pulled at a blanket and uncovered the happy, goofy face of Teresa’s dog,...
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Little Sarah’s heart swelled at her new puppy’s ability to love her. She loved him back with kisses and doll clothes that made him look funny. For a solid week, they were inseparable. Then, he disappeared. Buckets of tears later, mom finally found him. In the closet, loose-limbed. Sleeping up a storm beneath a...
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“Mom wants five bream on credit, please,” says the girl to the towering Ms. Lamprey. Ms. Lamprey, to everyone in the store, “That whole trailer park wants credit!” Nearing her way out, the little girl drops her parcel of fish. One moment. One fish. Hidden up under a shelf. Four fish will do just...
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His belittling was incessant. The worst names a woman can hear. Infractions spewed forth even while he chewed. Oh, how she’d like to smash that face into his glop! Sated, he stood up. His woman did too. She watched them leave the restaurant. Clutching the cold steel in her pocket, she was not far...
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