I found the body at dawn.
The sailor was slumped against the wrecked stern in a bloody pulp. He clung to the humble fishing boat’s planking as the chilled waters of Lake Erie lapped the crumpled hull.
Poor soul.
Bart, my beagle, set his paws on the top rail of our small fishing vessel.
“Officer, what you mean I can’t pump my own gas?” The shorter man scowled up from his car, biting off his words. The neon sign of the station flickered on and off while the smell of exhaust filled Officer Ortega’s nostrils.
Ortega sighed. “I’m sorry sir, that’s the law in New Jersey,”
I rap my knuckles on the bucket of fish to get Delphine’s attention. My muscles tense as I scan the rippling surface.
She pops up next to me, sending a wave sloshing onto the slick surface beside the pool. Delphine’s grin reveals double rows of sharp teeth. She chitters. “G’day, Charlie.”
My insides quiver
An enormous shadow crossed the plain, extending its darkness in every direction. Eclipsing the warmth of the sun, the object above blocked the light, painting bushes and wild scrub black. The rear portion of the shadow rolled forward like a curtain, forming a visible line between day and night.
The preschooler blinked at the
“Take this,” Mother says, her usually-shining blue eyes muted and sorrowful. “Remember, Lyskkia, you’re not alone. The Allfather is with you, and the land will fight for us as long as we fight for it.”
I accept the staff with both hands, the weight of the ancient, polished wood making this all-too-real.
It was a balmy spring morning and Mr. Robert Washington was trundling down a dirt road in a beaten-up Ford F-Series. Around him, the corn grew tall and lush and the surrounding windbreaks teamed with life. Passerines sang, corvids squawked, crickets chirped, bees hummed, cicadas droned. And then, without warning or reason, they all
Read it now
Carter walks through the terminal doors and blinks. One minute ago, he was stumbling around in the dark, lost in a briar patch along the Appalachian Trail. Now he’s standing in what looks like an airport from the 1970s. A group of stewardesses in robin’s-egg blue uniforms giggle and wave as they pass.
Read it now
“You said we were going to the beach.”
We both stared at the frozen wasteland. A gust of frigid wind blew into the time machine, swirling around us and stealing our breath away.
“Um.” With one last glance at the desert of ice and snow, I slammed the door shut and frowned…
The waters of Venezia are colder than most people think.
I stare at the Grand Canal two stories beneath me. Waves lap quietly against the dock to Palazzo Grassi, shimmering in the moonlight. Venezia—Venice—is quiet now. The tourists have retreated. The gondolas are docked. Below, a duck nibbles on a forgotten gelato
Although Muir Woods had been closed for a year, I stole through the barricades in the dimness of dawn. No birds sang. No rustling. Only a presence.
As sun rays weaved through branches, so did the whispers. I caught human and woman on the wind’s tongue, and I prayed the forest would reveal what
The shadows of rocky outcroppings stretched across my path as the sun lowered toward evening. It was dangerous to be alone this late—I knew it well. But my feet drew me onward, until the caravan was lost to the hills behind and even their voices and the noise of the camp faded.
Read it now
Recent Comments