These stories were told to entertain us and, at times, to frighten us into good behavior; but no tale she ever told us scared me half as much as something that happened during my eleventh year. This tale was told to me by Ootek, my father’s brother, and it was all the more frightening because he ...
He took up a position on the rocks, close to where Louise was darting back and forth, trying to find the best angle for taking pictures. Collars of dark brown seaweed floated like wet leather in the water, rising and falling on the gentle swells. With the boat already all but floating, Wally got ...
Calling it “Clean-up Week” was a bit of a misnomer because it usually took the town workers closer to a month to go around, sort through everything, and haul off the used and broken TVs and kitchen appliances, the construction and destruction debris, the rusted lawn mowers and snow blowers, and a...
After spending the whole night tramping through woods and swamp and bog, Chief Shaw had just settled into his chair and hadn’t even taken one sip of his coffee before the phone rang. He snatched up the receiver in mid-ring and barked, “Yeah!” “Hello, Chief Shaw?” the voice at the other end of the...
Lisa allowed Angie to use the new pink Schwinn she had gotten for her last birthday while she dragged her rusted, purple Huffy out of the cellar and used that. The tires were bald, and the frame was bent, but she managed with it for the afternoon. After filling themselves with candy at Sparky’s s...
The muscles in her arms and shoulders were starting to cramp up, and the skin at the base of her neck was tingling from tension. She continually glanced into the rearview mirror at the children in the back seat, unable to stop the waves of hivers as she watched, expecting to see that other ace—pa...