I could hear the laughing getting closer and closer before they busted through the door of the drama lab, shouting out, “Ms. Clayton, do you want to know how to eat a peanut butter sandwich in one bite?” They tumbled in like puppies, these two freshmen from […]
“I got the breath of life put in me.” He said it slow, unable to get over the wonder of it. “There was an accident. I’ve been to the county home.” Christine and her friend Kathy had been walking across an old bridge on a […]
So what was this flag girl part of me ready to say I am not having it? The part that, as time went on, was so in-tune with how-to details. “Hmmm, Mary Kerr keeps a garden hose at the ready in the trunk of her car,” […]
A classmate and her mother were murdered in their home when I was a sophomore in high school, first her mother, who was shot in the basement where they were both were watching tv, then Karol, who was chased up the stairs into the garage […]
A mouse takes 130 very rapid little mouse breaths per minute and lives for 1 – 3 years. A whale takes 6 whale-sized breaths every minute and lives to be around 100. It almost makes you think breathing long and slow might be a very […]
We heard the DOT paid great so we decided we’d stand on the highway with a flag in our hand and rake it in for a summer. What a thing; we’d just stand on a road and rake it in. Our assignment was Highway 218…mile […]
He had stuff I loved. From the minute I pulled into the driveway and saw the shapely Zen garden pot the size of a full-bodied hydrangea bush, I thought the psychiatrist who chose that elegant garden pottery is the psychiatrist for me. It just kept getting better and better […]
Hunter had pretty much stopped talking by the time he was two, favoring the mouthfeel of a binky over words. Up to that point, he’d been very verbal, very focused on language. He especially loved newscasters, with Tom Brokaw being his favorite. Of course, we were […]
It was a totally unorganized attempt at baby-making — just a creative round-up of skin and bones and teeth and hair and other pieces that typically comprise a human being, all bundled together in a grapefruit-sized package I had been carrying around with me for who […]
A dagger and a boule of bread have been placed on the table. The room is unusually quiet; this is not the standard set-up and it does not go unnoticed. When it’s time, we hear the sharp, clip clip clip as Mildred Bensmiller’s practical, medium-heel pumps […]
There’s a restaurant in Los Angeles called Homegirl Cafe, one of the Homeboy Industries businesses created to provide jobs for former gang members. Gregory Boyle, the Jesuit priest in back of that project, was having lunch with Diane Keaton at the cafe one day. When […]
Tactical error. I was already halfway across the street, essentially committed to crossing, when I saw the little old lady. Blast. Another person had already claimed that sidewalk. And what’s more, because she was trundling along so slowly while pulling a little red suitcase down the […]
Be cool. 