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The old road was lined with white heath. At first, Florette had called it Erica and would hold it up to the children’s ears to shake the dry taffeta bells. Sometimes, there was devil scat in the middle of the road. It had bones in it, and quickly grew a beard of white mold. The children called the growing mounds Old Man’s Whiskers, and somehow got the idea mixed up […]

The weary face behind her in the bathroom mirror startled Lia. Her mother usually slept in after a late shift at the bowling alley. “Don’t go getting any big ideas,” her mother’s reflection said.  “Uh huh,” Lia answered. Lia’s morning routine, bathroom to hallway to kitchen, was slowed by her bathrobed mother who exhaled loudly in irritation at each contact. Finally her mother lit the first cigarette of the day, […]

I guess I’m finally through it. I don’t expect to get over it, but things are better now. I no longer wish it had been me instead of them. I remember the tragedy like it was yesterday: One minute we were following our kids home from the lake and the next, I’m standing in front of our car, with the lights of emergency vehicles flashing all around me. I’m cradling […]

A dragon came to me in my sleep last night. She kissed my eyelids gently with her hot tongue and made me cry. As she dried my eyes, she gently unfolded one scarlet wing. Inside the opening, close to her body, I saw my fears, cowering like newborns. I ran to her and picked them up protectively, knowing deep inside I was their mother, their charge. I held them tight […]