Ever since she was old enough walk alone around the block she had been told the same story; “Angelina, there are ghosts in the house with the four broken doors. There were four bad men and women who used to live in there and the devil came to claim their souls, leaving their spirits behind [...]

The crows came the same day that the rabbit got caught up in the tangle of barbed wire at the edge of the garden and died for twenty minutes. The same day that the letter came. It was clear that any attempt to rescue the rabbit would make things worse; best to just keep the [...]

Her name is Leilani, she is from Hawaii and I smell her hair as we dance awkwardly. Hawaii seems so exotic to an Ohio boy, and the smell of her hair, camellias come to memory from my grandmothers home. I don’t know what to say. She doesn’t seem to need anything said as we foxtrot [...]

“Let’s go sit on the bench in the park for a few minutes” she will say when my mumbling turns into tongues with greater volume, the pitch going up and up. I know when I am scaring her. I am scared too. What is going on that so much sound comes from me with out [...]

In response to the previous Chapter, George emailed me this:
I think my shyness is reinforced by Deborah Meier’s words; “Learning is mostly talking, teaching is mostly listening.”
Have we developed a unique way of communicating with each other – or is this how artists always do it? (In any case, thank you, George, for the beautiful [...]

Drive in, drive through, drive by; so very American. Quick-Mart, Quick-Wash, and Quickbooks software to keep track of the money part. The quick-greeting; “Harya?” or “Howzitgoin?” Leisure is at best a late night talk show.
America loves the instant; instant coffee, instant gratification; also youth, beauty, celebrity, health and guns. Health and guns? Strange bedfellows. Americans [...]

Riley Mae asked me in our radio interview if I had any regrets. Riley is eighteen, doesn’t she know yet about regrets? Of course I have regrets; that I deliberately left open the rabbit cage door in our kindergarten playground and the rabbits escaped, to the loss of our companionship and possibly their lives as [...]

Aaron and Molly live across the fifth fairway from us and are the only folks we know - or need to know - in the development. Aaron was Ben’s teacher, and Ben is what he is today because of that. I got this note from a former student, and know what it is to be [...]

After the baby came she gave this sweet shrine to Jill, who had no desire for a baby, and thus gave it to me along with the story. She had been disappointed in childlessness for years. She believed that the Virgin Mother would respond to the care and devotion that she put into the shrine’s [...]