Beyond exhaustion, I rested against the wall of the carriage and pressed my face to the window. I quickly reached that helpless stage where I blinked open my eyes, puzzled for a moment that I wasn’t at home in my own bed, awakening to another day of grind and guilt. I’d fallen asleep. My briefcase. My right hand jerked sideways with my eyes. The touch of the soft leather and the qualification in my vision of the battered Tuscan black briefcase did little to temper the steely-cold fingertips scampering down my back. As nonchalantly I as imagined I didn’t appear to be, I undid the two hidden side buckles and checked inside the flap pocket. There they were, the photos of two beautiful boys, a year between them – seven and eight. I held one in my hand and ran my thumb around its white-bordered frame. I then returned it…
Charlie wasn’t sick. He didn’t live in a bubble or anything like that. But still. It started when he was at school talking to…
Heart pumping faster than her legs, she feared she might kill her mother, feared her father would catch up to her. “Cora!” Oh, no! …
The little girl and boy were screaming. Not the bad screaming. Not Mia’s screaming. Lucretia stood in the outer schoolyard, looking through the fence…
After seven days of intolerable confinement, Izzy decided that this foggy afternoon was the right time to free herself. And, if she could manage,…
It was clear to Cynth that the cute girl and handsome boy didn’t want to kiss. Not with her sitting three benches away. Not…
We fly half-way around the world to New Delhi. After almost sixteen hours of non-stop flight, we land at almost midnight through a dark…
Near the end of a walkway were fourteen counted garbage bags. Black and bloated they held skeletal remains. Expired clothing, a Sunday brunch, and…
That was Kojagiri Purnima night when the moon comes closer to the earth and appears larger than the usual full moon. It is usually…
Winter is approaching fast. Autumn comes routinely as expected. The cool, crisp, morning sun gives a reprieve from the summer heat. But then summer…
