Claire, a senior pre-med, no longer reads the Times. The stories are too big, too far away. What can she do about all that bad news? She’s taken to reading the local newspaper instead. She used to skip the obituaries, but now she scans those as well, looking for people who died young, noting the illnesses that led to their deaths. About a month ago she noticed that a pretty Puerto Rican woman had died at thirty-two “after a long illness.” When Matt told her Ramon’s mother had died, Claire recalled the face of the woman. Matt is also pre-med and, though only a freshman, the co-chair of Claire’s Ecology Club. The two received a grant to lead an after-school program called “Schoolyard Ecology” at a middle school in the city. Ramon is Matt’s favorite student. On the first day of the program, when the others were looking at living…
I’ll never forget the Halloween I moved to Westport. It was a rough year for me—just barely 12—moving in the hottest summer months to…
At the kitchen sink, Julia felt the warm, moist spring breeze blowing in through the open window brush her cheeks. She ran her tongue…
Red, yellow, green. All brilliant, all alive. I’m alive, standing here. My boss is alive too, picking his way around. The look on his…
Captain Noonan, the “Bearded Holmes” of the Sandersonville Police Department, was enjoying his last cup of coffee for the day. It was also his…
Captain Noonan, the “Bearded Holmes” of the Sandersonville Police Department, was an avid bowler. Not devoted in the sense he was in a weekly…
With the Coronavirus scare numbing the collective psyches of our great nation our president, Donald J. Trump, awoke to the realization that he had…
English poet Derek Sellen has won the 7th Five Words International Poetry Contest for his poem Betty Fox is Skipping. He is reputedly the first…
Captain Noonan, the ‘Bearded Holmes’ of the Sandersonville Police Department, was seated beside the Sandersonville City Pool when he knew he was about to…
When I was a kid, Dad bought me a hobby horse. My uncle gave me a ten-gallon hat. Grandma surprised me with two six-shooters…
