My grandmother was still playing Euchre with her friends, even though the East Shore Senior Center had closed down months ago. Those seniors were sneaky about it—alternating houses, setting up games at odd hours so no one could detect a pattern, speaking in code over
Our flight was delayed. It would be more accurate to say your flight was delayed, and my flight was delayed, but we cannot know now what belonged to one of us and what belonged to the other. The most that we can know now is
The man bought three goldfish and a small fish tank at the wet market during his weekly grocery run. He happened to walk past the stall that sold ornamental fish, and stopped to take a look at one of the brightly glowing tanks. The man
When the love ends, one realizes that it is gracious for a lover not to speak in permanence or gifts. I’m sitting at a study table on the sixth floor of the library, and the window before me is something like twenty feet tall. The
The bandages circled my head at an oblique angle and irritated the earward side of my right eyebrow. I was waiting in the sickly park outside the hospital for Zalut (pronounced like “Salut!”) to arrive in his car, a duct-taped Vaz-2101. There was broken glass
It was the morning after my older brother, Mike, moved out. Mom had just left for her job at the bank, and I was in the kitchen, barefoot, wearing a long t-shirt and boxer briefs, staring out the back door. The condensation on the glass
Yemen, 2010. I stood by the front door of our gated school, keeping half of my arm inside to make sure the metallic door didn’t close. I peeked inside to see if anyone was noticing, and peeked back at Reema every few seconds. She stood
By the time Ella Henderson snuck into her two hundred and fifty seventh free movie at the Greensboro AMC, she was almost hoping to get caught. The sneaking wasn’t done out of financial necessity — her paralegal salary was comfortable enough. It was a hobby,
JUST WAIT I know what the law says. Plus, the SSO makes me repeat it after her, every Tuesday afternoon, inside her office. “Let’s say you see your mom, Eva. What do you do now?” I say: “Push the alarm.” Every time, Ms. L gives
It was only true because people believed it. “There has to be a reason.” “An explanation.” “Yes—as to why.” In normal years the region was pleasant by summer. Temperatures were mild. Storms came over the high mountains, snow-covered through summer, and watered the hills around