They picked up Howard from the bus stop in town, early in the morning of his first day. “Bit of a change for you, then, off to work with the rest of ’em?” said the driver, a thickset shaven-headed man in his fifties. His voice was incongruously mild and affable; it took Howard a while […]
1. Sperm whale tooth, lampblack The first scene depicted is the whaling ship Henry Charles Morgan, beset by a storm. The waves are stylized curls, the wind traced as spirals battering the masts and tearing the sails. A series of dots arranged diagonally across the image stand in for rain. The lampblack is worked most […]
The air in the shop smelled of talcum, resin, and tissue, with a faint, almost indefinable undertone of pine and acid-free paper. I walked down the rows of collectible Barbies and pre-assembled ball-jointed dolls to the back wall, where the supplies for the serious hobbyists were kept. Pale, naked bodies hung on hooks, while unpainted […]
Of the first six postcards from Natalie, I only have three. Mom was able to intercept the other three while I was at school or, after June, working a shift at the Tractor Supply Store. I wouldn’t even have known about them except that she made sure I knew, saved them until I got home […]
Sit by me, my bokkie, my darling girl. Closer, yes, there. I am an old man now, and this is a thing that happened to me when I was very young. This is not like the story of your uncle Mika, and how he tricked me in the Breede River and I almost drowned. It […]
May 1838 Dahlonega, Georgia “He out yet?” Lottie’s husband William breathed behind her, invisible in the dark. Lottie’s heart sped, a thumping beneath her breastbone that stirred the child in her belly. “Don’t know,” Lottie said. “Hush.” She stared from her hiding place behind the arrowwood shrubs, heavy belly low to the soil. They had […]
The first summer I grew fur and gained fat around my slender limbs I was happy. I could hardly wait for the peacocks to arrive, and so I spent the days craning through my tower chamber’s window. When I finally saw my best friends soaring across the blue sky, I instantly rushed to greet them. […]
Sometimes, not very often, but sometimes when the winds blow right, the summer heat is kind, and the rain trickles down just-so, a woman is born of a jacaranda tree. The indigenous inhabitants leave these women well alone. They know them to be foreign to the land for all that they spring from the great […]
The gun was still on the table when Caroline returned from her walk. She stopped short in the doorway. A gust of wind shoved at her back, whipped a spray of rain around her. She fumbled until she found the handle and pulled the door closed behind her. The gun was still on the table. […]
Frank felt the back of the caravan shift to the right and knew it was time to stop for a while. He rested his hand on the device sitting on the seat beside him, looking for vibration or for warmth, as he always did. If he felt nothing in the next twenty kilometres, he’d have […]
