You were there when I was installed. On a boat, one hundred miles from any coastline, you pushed me into the slot and started the installation sequence. The first thing I was aware of is that I was no…

I arrived at the hotel bar just as things were picking up, slid onto a barstool and swiveled to peek up at the big guy next to me. Well, I tried to, anyway, but looking up through my new mink eyelashe…

I remember the summer of 1952 as momentous. Momentous because that summer plumbing was installed in our family home that sat on a dirt patch forty miles south of the Canadian border. I was seven with …

My grandmother’s hands are pale with slender fingers and arthritic joints that never stopped her from doing whatever she wanted despite some occasional pain and swelling. They looked exactly as I pict…

I was heading south. Vegas, to be exact. Five hundred hard-earned dollars were burning a hole in my pocket. That cheap-ass O’Reilly had finally coughed up what he owed for the two weeks I’d spent busi…

I want to swim in the ocean with her. But I can’t. She’s sitting in my lap scrolling through the images of her mother and me. The computer screen is a useless time machine that can’t change the past. …

OFFICIAL 9-1-1 TRANSCRIPT: OCTOBER 08, 1984 Dispatcher: 9-1-1. What’s your emergency? Caller: Lord… help… you gotta help. Dispatcher: Sir, please calm down. I need — Caller: She’s… I don’t know what. S…

(London, Highgate psychiatric ward, 1995.) Rosa chokes on a wall of smoke as she enters the TV room. Through the jaundiced haze she makes out 8 or 9 men in plastic chairs, staring fixedly at a screen.…

Mix all the ingredients together. What have I done? Why have I just invited the entire team to celebrate Kanelbullens Dag with me tomorrow? Seriously, who’s going to care about cinnamon buns? Ten minu…

Gargo the warrior, of the Alonsi tribe, loved the fair-haired girl Misilla, who was deemed a budding weird woman. She would one day be the great enchantress of her people, and the mate of Gargo as he …

There is a young tree who lives near the edge of a forest. He is small — a side effect of his age — and he has very few branches. But his leaves are a gorgeous shade of bright green, and his soul is f…

Their uneven line inches forward, seventeen concerned volunteers trespassing lawfully in dew-stained sneakers. The morning is bright, unseasonably warm, but she can still see her breath. Maggie walks …

It was supposed to be a quick in-and-out job. I only needed some fruit. Nothing fancy. Some bananas, some apples. Maybe grapes if they were on offer. A simple trip. Until I saw the blueberries. The ri…