In Chains Bad guys are stupid, Dad told me. Don’t be afraid of them unless they’re fighting with one another. I hear them downstairs. They’re back, and they’re arguing. I smell pizza, and my stomach growls. I make a fist, monster-up my face, and try it out, “I’m warning you.” Yuck. Let’s face it,...
She opened the door, reached into the desk for what was left of the one Genoveffa had given her on Wednesday. Plunking herself into her mother’s favorite chair and untying the twine, she opened the paper and stared at the two additional volumes in her hand. At the same time, she opened her notebo...
A scouring wind blew Serafina’s cape. Ancient trees bent against its force, but as they rolled and bounced inland, the air grew softer. Their world filled with spring blossoms and Serafina smelled the heavy scent of almond, the tang of citrus. Carlo drove. She closed her eyes and felt sand undern...
The piazza was dustier than she remembered. She held her skirts and looked at her home, the home of her ancestors, haggard in the noonday sun. The shutters were in need of paint, the stucco fading from rose to dirty ochre, water-stained close to the ground. Missing Carmela’s touch, the gardens we...
Understand?” Teo held his breath. The specter shook him and said, “Do … you … understand?” Teo nodded. “I should have killed you and thrown your body in the lake on the outskirts of town,” he said. The monster stuck his filthy gun into Teo’s face again. “Go on, kill me. My parents are dead, Falco...
I should know, I’ve stared up at her often enough. Snagged in amongst the electric wires and shining on branches losing their leaves, the heartless bitch beams her rays down on Denny and me. Sometimes I think she’s already decided my fate—ever on the verge, never willing to embrace love. But she ...
I’ve got a son a little older than you, although I think you’re taller, probably stronger. His nose always in a book, my Vicenzu, especially after the accident, and he loves his numbers.”“Numbers?”“You know, you add them, subtract them, make them tell whatever story you want. Vicenzu keeps the le...