“They say there are only old women left.” Dima, sitting on a stump, dirt and dead pine needles at his feet, hugs his greatcoat tighter around him but it’s no use. The cold is unspeakable. He’s never felt anything like it, would be ashamed to say so even though he suspects the others feel the […]
Today three guests arrived from the sea. I had neither expected nor wished to see another soul for as long as I lived. Yet I made them welcome. I had been sitting above the waterfall, gazing into one of the pools beside the rapids where the waters gather strength for their shouting suicidal plunge. I […]
She looks out the window and wants so badly to see a picture-perfect town in New England. Like in her paperbacks. When the leaves on the trees are golden and red and it’s the week before Halloween. She imagines she’s a heroine in one of the stories; they’re all the same: a young woman on […]
I. She came into the world with her hands fisted. She didn’t arrive crying as most babies do. A nurse had to smack her brown little bum with a wooden ruler before she gave a loud, piercing cry. Four days later, in the middle of a quiet street, sun burning fiercely on the asphalt, a […]
These floors, original to the house, have witnessed the turn of two centuries. The shoe concealed beneath them is older. Laces replaced, sole thrice mended, the shoe still bears the impression of the big toe that for years pressed against the worn upper. Now, it rests mateless between floor joists, a curiosity for spiders and […]
The night the first trace appeared on the sanatorium’s tile, Matthew was returning from checking that the infirmary wing was closed. At first glance, the tile was nothing special: a simple continuation of the floor that the nurses, the Prior, and the various patients disdained underfoot. However, for Matthew, it became the object of an […]
Granny always says not to drink from the well, she reckons it’s got the taint about it. She shakes her head disapprovingly whenever we’re close. “Never should’ve placed dead bodies so close to the Lord’s water,” she says, making her tut-tut sound, and the sign of the cross. Great Uncle Raymond is the nearest dead […]
I’m a face in the rain. A sketch of shadows under streetlight. Mostly I’m a memory, a ghost of myself. Adam was my name. It’s confusing, but every time I even the score for us, I grow stronger. Isn’t that why I’m here, standing outside the restaurant, born of tears and blood? I’m the shadow […]
Seventeen today. On an untouched stretch of the central coast, under a fog-blotted sky, seventeen girls take long, graceless strides across the beach and into the ocean. Bare feet sinking into sparkling sand, ankles roped with seaweed, hands instinctively reaching out again and again as they brace themselves with every stumble. The water froths, salivating […]
If there’s one thing my mother taught me, it’s to take responsibility for my actions. When something breaks, take responsibility. When there’s not enough time, take responsibility. When someone else fucks up, still take responsibility. Whether or not the end result was my fault didn’t matter. If I had a stake in the situation, then […]
