The pager on my belt squeals with familiar tones. Tom, the 911 dispatcher, sounds stressed while declaring there’s a boy missing at the Fox Hall development. The mother can be heard in the background screaming, “I want him found now! You find him now!” It is an unusual blistering July afternoon on San Juan Island.
Continue reading… "Carrion"She steals from her parents’ house. Twelve porcelain plates with cobalt trim, a dozen wine glasses wrapped in her polar fleece jacket, and two gold lamps with painted roses on their bases. Her hands sweat holding these things, as she rushes from the house worrying that the front door will slam shut before she comes back for the second load.
Continue reading… "Stealing"Pendarvis was an unlikely hero. To begin, there was his name: Arthur Pendarvis, Jr. Why didn’t adults realize it’s dumb for two people to have the same name in one family? One of them always gets called something else, and it’s never the adult. Why not give the child his own name in the first place?
Continue reading… "Pendarvis"Tranderpost was a trader of animals, only one among a whole tribe of traders whose flags went all adroop the day that Tranderpost let the tiger go. He shouldn’t have done it, Lord knows, opened that cage and set the killer free. He risked his own neck doing it, thrusting that the tiger would disappear into the bush
Continue reading… "Tranderpost and the Tiger"Genevieve Heller was on her knees, weeding. The soil, black and soft after the recent rains, let go of the weeds readily. Her fingers tightened around the base of a blooming filaree. Such pretty rose-lavender flowers. Sorry, filaree, out you go.
She swept her hair away from her face with the back of her hand. Her knees hurt. Every time she moved along the border, her knees hurt more.
Continue reading… "Life After Herbert"Belador dragged her up the stairs, saying good night with such quickness to his mother that Etaine regarded them with some sadness in her eyes. “We have a great deal of work to see to in the morning. Rest well.” Belador pulled Sauvir up the stairs with the concentration of a questing hound and too tired to resist, she let her curiosity have its way with her.
Continue reading… "Ringmaker (excerpt)"Jessie had had a slight sore throat, that was all.
Elsie adjusted her petticoat, smoothed her black dress and put on a crisply ironed white apron. She heard her daughter singing to herself as the child lay in her cot recovering from diphtheria. Though relieved that Jessie was well enough she could leave her alone, queasiness rocked Elsie as she rehearsed the words she must use today.
Continue reading… "A Shadow in the Valley"Nolene saw the dust cloud rising in the distance long before she could make out who it was. She knew most of the pickups around, and if it wasn’t a vehicle she recognized, her lips stiffened into a frowning arc as the dust rolled toward her.
She kept the garage sale going every day. There was nothing else to do, and the stuff sold so slowly there was no danger of it running out any time soon.
Continue reading… "Down the Road"Once in a far away land called Finano there was a boy who had just witnessed a great tragedy. His name was Ben. His mother hade just died of a sudden heart attack. In three minutes he was alone, all alone. The others, like his aunts, uncles and his father, had died when he was only one. His mother had been very poor so he had not much money, no sturdy house, no food or any friends.
Continue reading… "Shape"There was a bad, bad kid. He usually threw his gourmet dinner on the floor. He also shoved his exotic lunches in his older sister’s face.
Until one day….
He threw his gourmet dinner on the floor and a pink tiger said, ‘Hey kid, can I have that?’
Continue reading… "Dinnertime"