Even with my savior on top of me, muffling the noise, protecting me from the needles and splintered wood that rained down on us, I could tell that it had been the unmistakable blast of a .22. That’s what happens when you hang around gun nuts like Genevieve. We lay there, the two of us, cold pebbl...
She’s alive. She’s alive. That’s my mantra as I (finally!) get to Mt. Olive and (finally!) find a parking space. Something in the universe has shifted. I sense it, that the blissful era I took for granted in which my mother was resilient and healthy is forever gone. More than ever I need to be in...
At its center was a crumbling steel factory, long out of use, much of it ripped apart for scrap metal. Dollar stores, tattoo parlors, and bars—the cockroaches of economic decline—had replaced hardware stores and dress shops. Even the weather was gloomy. Clouds had moved in, threatening rain. Ther...
FIVE It was after five when Mom and her assistant, Manny, returned from the autopsy with Erin in the back of our hearse. It beeped slowly down the incline in reverse and stopped. Mom emerged, looking frazzled, while Manny proceeded to the rear, flipped open the latch, and removed the gurney. My g...