Chloe and Shana remember the days when their mother wove stories about kingdoms under the sea, but now that their mother is "away", Chloe does not allow herself to believe in fairy tales and Shana blocks everything out and sneaks out every night in under cover Goth grab. Chloe is too busy taking ...
When the Disney World character actors go on strike, teens are hired as replacements. Ella is assigned the role of Cinderella simply because the shoes fit. And every afternoon at three o?clock she gets married to Prince Charming. A perfect dream come true?except Ella doesn?t believe in dreams any...
In the thirteen stories of Barkley's debut collection, characters are haunted by memory and missed chances, buoyed by humor and a fragile optimism.In "Under Water," a man whose job keeps him buried beneath the waters of the Chesapeake reassures his wife that their lives have meaning despite livin...
Like someone’s rec room, Alison thought, cheerful and mundane, trying to fool us into thinking that we’re home and comfortable, that everything will be okay. It would be more honest if they made it look like a dark alley, or if they made it rain. She tried to explain this to Sarah, but fatigue pl...
I sat at the folding card table in my kitchen and opened the final notarized decree that made legal my broken-up marriage with Debbie. I took that paper and stuck it to the wall with a Bic pen stabbed in the sheetrock. During that time two years ago I was full of such acts, pretending for no one’...
Here is how bad it gets: About sixty miles outside Jacksonville we were cruising high because Tricia’s Blitz made his best showing all winter, coming from the outside eight box on a muddy track and placing second in the sprint stake, winning enough to get us motoring back toward West Memphis, tos...