1. My father’s absolute favorite book was Jane Eyre. He read it to me nightly while we cuddled beneath blankets upon his bed in our flat at 11 Broomfield Rd. We were of modest means, and yet by sheer coincidence, we shared our surname with
We were sitting at the dinner table, finishing off. We were still in our school shirts and skirts, the material of the classic 80´s kitchen chairs digging an imprint on the underside of my thigh. My sister was eating a yoghurt and she was leaning
It was somewhere near the age of thirty when it happened – although I think it’s safe to say that it’s somewhere near the age of thirty when a lot of things happen, when we ask bigger questions than we thought ourselves capable of, when
“Any good collection is full of ghosts.” ~ Anonymous The sun was out when the brunette woman and the child arrived at his bedside. Her head seemed to glow in front of the window, like the old glass pictures in the church he had gone
Our children bought us a padded swinging seat for our 45th wedding anniversary. They kindly put it together for us, but took for granted how hard it was to pop a tight champagne cork. After two attempts, we resorted to our default tipple – Cointreau.
I know that at some point in my life, I must have skipped stones over some body of water somewhere. I know I have, but when I think back to when and where, the memory just isn’t there. I think, When did I skip rocks?
It took a moment for Brigitta to realize the package that had been delivered required her signature, not her mother-in-law’s. In her mind, Mrs. Grosham was the lady of the house, Rosalyn – clad in outfits from fashion houses, draped in jewelry, slipping catty comments
IGNORANCE ISN’T SOMETHING that changes overnight. Neither is intelligence. Both take time to develop, and if so much energy is being poured into believing something, wouldn’t it be more rewarding to eventually arrive at the truth? Granted, it is a truth that may change form
1. WHEN I AWOKE, after the first time Dixon Halbauer shot me, Ann’s was the first face I saw. I had passed out from the pain and when I came to, there was a pale face floating above me. Though she wore a pinched, worried
MOVING ACROSS THE COUNTRY inspires a certain kind of madness, notably different than fleeing over an ocean for exploits requiring little more than two suitcases, a camera and a backpack. After more than a year of wistful gazes towards the sunset, I had finally left
I WAS PREPARING for another several months out at sea, and with that preparation comes extensive medicals. I was due for a pap smear and gynecological check as well, so I was knocking all the birds with one stone, so to speak. The only thing
WE WERE AT A DINGY DINER in a western border town of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula when I failed to save my camper. It felt like I was trapped, or frozen. For all my training, I couldn’t seem to respond to the panicked shouts of “She’s
BAD BURRITO. FILMING. Last Year. Martinsburg, West Virginia. I’m sitting in a harshly lit lobby of a Comfort Inn, in West Virginia, at a tall table with chairs too short for it made out of particle board and vinyl, eating a bad burrito I ordered
A SURREAL CULINARY NIGHTMARE at 30,000 Feet It was just after the final security checkpoint at Ngurah Rai International Airport when the cold sweat kicked in on a warm, humid September evening. Two weeks of stunning Indonesian sunsets along the west coast of Bali were
LONDON, ENGLAND As the man’s eyes opened, it felt like a regular Tuesday, another anonymous morning, of equal estrangement from his life across the ocean as the night before had been. However, the bustle of activity outside the door betrayed normality. The flat of typically
OUR HOUSE, A COLONIAL BUILDING with high ceilings and enormous hardwood doors, had been in my mother’s family since her great-grandparents’ generation, since long before the revolution. It was a fantastic house, with heavy shutters on each window that completely blacked it out at night,