My husband and I met working on the first seawall. It wasn’t so much love as you need someone to keep you warm up here, and carry you home when you drink too much. Charlie was hairy and I liked that. He didn’t say much, except sometimes when he couldn’t sleep he’d […]

I first saw her at the Denny’s in Moss Landing. Your father kept smiling at me over his eggs; I looked past him at the couple in the next booth. She had her hair up in a ponytail and I could see the tiny hairs escaping down the back of her neck. He was […]

We were in the middle of a neverending nosebleed. David’s little sharp head pointed at the kitchen ceiling; I pressed his nostrils with tissues, swiped away the bright blood as it slid out between my fingers. The trash can was a pile of red sodden wads. David was eight and I was thirteen. […]

The sheriff made me apologize, but I wasn’t really sorry. I bowed my head before the farmer’s wife, and I kept my fingers crossed behind my back. As soon as I get the chance, I’ll do it again.
You’ve seen them, slit-eyed in the pasture. You’ve let your children pat and pet their bullet heads, […]