Mom said. I groaned. Mom lowered the heat under the spaghetti sauce and ushered DJ and me to the kitchen table. “Spain? Tanzania?” she asked. “What is going on?” “It’s Grandpa’s request,” DJ said, sitting down. “He’s asked me to scatter his ashes from the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.” “You’re going ...
I was wearing a sweatshirt, but the morning was warm so I just had shorts on. The first thing I noticed was a rash of goose bumps on my legs. I shivered and looked up. The fog was almost on me. It hung like a rolling, heavy curtain over the water a few feet away. Oddly it appeared to be moving to...
It has been a slow progress dragging my pained body down from the hills. I am exhausted and hungry, but my headache has subsided to a dull throbbing. The town is stretched north to south along the valley floor, so it is no more than four blocks wide in the direction I walk. Nevertheless, it has a...
Her hair is in two braids that swing wildly as she envelopes us in an enthusiastic hug. “Hi, Mom,” I say as soon as I get a chance. “This is Annabel.” “Wonderful to meet you,” Mom says to Annabel, then looks back at me. “But you mustn’t call me Mom. That defines me by the role of mother—a role I ...
We’re impatient by the time we’ve hurried through the heritage village to the pond, across the narrow neck of land and onto the beach. We stand in the late-afternoon sun and stare at the gouges in the dirt where something heavy has been dragged to the water. “These wouldn’t be here if they had be...
And so I could. I had heard the voices of Sir John, the footman, the cooks and, most importantly, my friend George. My dreams were becoming more real. I was beginning to be a part of them. The feeling of happiness I had felt at the kitchen table with the endless supply of food before me lingered ...
I’m curled around the still-warm coals of my fire, so close that my poncho is singed. I lie still for a long time, working out what really happened last night and what is a fragment of the series of unsettling and confusing dreams that plagued what little sleep I managed to grab. Ghost Moon and t...
It’s a beautiful spring day and the birds are singing in the surrounding trees. Only the distant rumble of the guns reminds me how close we are to the fighting. Just as I finish rubbing oil off my hands, I’m stunned to hear a familiar voice over my shoulder. “Here you are, Eddie Boy! I’ve caught ...