The Antarctic! This is where I have spent three long weeks at sea. No-one thought I would survive, but I proved them wrong. Bitterly cold winds buffeted the sails of my tiny craft. I am slowly freezing to death. The cold winds penetrate even the tiniest cracks in my clothes and cabin. Like a bird of death, a cold wind blows and whistles through every crack in my cabin.
Continue reading… "Salvation Rock: A Ship’s Log"‘So what new adventure will you begin today?’ asked Jasper’s mom before sending him off to school.
‘Oh, I dunno, Mom,’ was his reply.
‘Well, if you plan on saving the world today don’t forget you have to walk the dog before dinner time!’
‘I won’t forget, Mom.’
And off he went on his way down the street.
Little Eva, her dark blond hair in pigtails, tagged along when her mother worked for the Sondervan family. The Sondervans had two maids and a cleaning lady, but Eva’s mother took care of special chores like washing the antique china or laundering the lace curtains. Everything in the house gleamed: the wooden floors, the tall windows, the copper kettles, the brass andirons, the silver candlesticks.
Continue reading… "The Sky Was A Brilliant Blue"From the moment Rebecca Blackwell entered the fourth grade classroom, Maggie felt it, just under her ribs. It stretched between them like a ribbon, tying them together. The class stared at Rebecca, small and thin, with the whitest hair imaginable. Long hair. With Mrs. Resnick’s arm around her fragile shoulders, Rebecca shivered, looking at her black leather shoes.
Continue reading… "Close Range"Kaly came to Palo Alto when she was four years old with her mother and father from New York City. She remembers the house, painted in pure white, where she lived, and how it stood in the middle of a wide emerald lawn bordered by apple orchards, grape vines and roses. Such a change from the brick and brownstone of New York and the Hudson River.
Continue reading… "Kaly, Where Are You?"Death dogs are all around us. They bark, they bite and gnash their teeth, they howl in the night for your soul. They lurk in the shadows but they’re there, too, in a day like this, so pure and blue and faultless, it makes your heart ache.
Continue reading… "Dying Like That"They watch from the hilltop as the doe pats a nest in the tall grasses between two trees. A year ago they watched a goat birthing in the barn. They stood on either side of the goat, helping her, talking to her, but it was not the same. The barn was warm and dry. The goat had a name. There was no nest.
Continue reading… "Nesting"Mrs. Sharply owned a bicycle but not a car. This was not unusual in a college town like Boulder, but Mrs. Sharply was. You don’t see much of old people in Boulder, you tend to see the young and beautiful. Her true age was a secret, but people said it was well over eighty.
Continue reading… "Balm of Gilead"My daughter Mattie calls me from downtown and says she needs my signature so that she can get a tattoo. She is sixteen, and she needs to be eighteen to get one. I am unhappy about this, but I get in the car anyway and drive to where she has asked me — the Tattoo Emporium.
Continue reading… "Tattoo Emporium"Claire van Dyke was on her way home from a weekend visit with her aunt, who lived in a nearby town with her two cats behind a window sill full of geraniums. The train, an old local, was unusually cold. Claire was the only passenger.
Continue reading… "You’re Not in Charge Here"