The boy with the amblyopic squint and his aunt are in the fields, furrowing dirt banks around wilted dwarf apple trees. The sun doesn’t feel millions of miles away. It’s a bright, infernal heat, closing the boy’s lazy eye further. It’s also stressing the saplings plagued with flathead borers. The beetles are eating through trunks, […]
The first time you babysit for the Watson boys, their father sits down at the kitchen table and tells you about the rules. He’s written them down on a sheet of paper and says he’ll stick it to the fridge, just in case you forget, even though they’re the same rules everybody else has: no […]
We drank red wine lounging on a white bedspread. These were the danger days. “When are you going to play me your song?” I was singing along to the Spotify station, something about being in love with a car. If I took care not to look at Merin, the singing might mellow me out until […]
My parents tell us there will be chickens at the funeral. I can’t help but snort, which doesn’t go over well with Mom, but I’m sorry, chickens? At my grandma’s funeral? I know they were all she gave a shit about, since there isn’t much to care about when you isolate yourself in the Midwest […]
Mary must have felt this way. No one asked her, and no one asked me. Even so, when the baby stirred in my belly, humming its sweet vibrations through the wood of my stomach, it felt like the incarnation. Mary—a human impregnated by God. I, Veronica—a violin impregnated by man. Well, not man. Woman. Lenora […]
I “Jan Frances.” “Oh, god. Jan Frances.” “I take it that means I win?” Cam was already rolling onto his stomach. “Yes,” I said, writhing like a salmon trying to drag itself upstream as I untangled myself from the sheets. “Jan Frances will do that.” Cam and I were playing Forgotten Folk: we each had […]
Now that I believe in reincarnation, I’m worried about my future. Must be boring for God to watch humans bumble along like a mega-cast reality show. Reincarnation’s probably His sanity. John D. Rockefeller becomes an Indian Untouchable. Osama bin Laden born into an Israeli family. Adolf Hitler birthed as a New Zealand aborigine. I’m wondering […]
Tulum. A single word scrolled across my screen against a backdrop of turquoise water. I clicked to reveal an invitation. I read, scanning down the page, searching for the catch. But there wasn’t one. Instead, the offer of a free weekend in Mexico, airfare included. Experience the latest in luxury with us! Deluxe resort in […]
My Papa wore red calfskin cowboy boots. His shoes were creased and leathery like his farm-worn hands. It was because he wore those boots that my grandfather was named Papa Boots. We were each other’s favorites. Everyone knew it and when Papa, drunk and happy one Fourth of July, finally said it aloud nobody’s feelings […]
Before I was a woman, I was a girl. My mother used to turn me around in front of the mirror, and say, Look at you. One day you’ll be just like me. For a long time, my head could tuck neatly under her chin; even when I was a teenager, it was something we […]
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