Category Archives: Fiction

Abby entered high school with eyeglasses and a damaged reputation. She felt self-conscious about both. It didn’t matter what style of glasses she tried; her correction was so substantial that it made the Abby behind the lenses appear much smaller … Continue reading →

Her eyes were blue at birth and everyone expected they’d darken. Most white babies come with blue eyes, but Abby’s parents were brown-eyed brown-haired people of brown-eyed brown-haired stock, so her relatives all waited for the blonde fuzz to be … Continue reading →

The bleeding stopped but Bill had a headache. The top of his head throbbed beneath the bandage. He leaned against his workbench despairing a little, wishing the older kids would visit. But he knew that wasn’t going to happen right … Continue reading →

Scalp wounds bleed. The way the blood came out of Bill’s head reminded Mary of the time Liz pierced her ear once too often. She went against direct parental orders with that hole in her cartilage, and Mary had thought … Continue reading →

The timing was unfortunate, as far as Bill was concerned. Not that there was ever a particularly good time for war, but since it looked like they were going to have one, he wished he or his could participate in … Continue reading →

The building was white, one tall story, and rectangular. It was only about twenty feet deep but it seemed five times that wide. It didn’t have a proper loft – more of a hay mezzanine – but Vickie and Beth … Continue reading →

It was unfortunate about the unreliability of Vickie J’s parents’ absences, because otherwise her house would have suited the three girls best. Her father had a wonderful hidden collection of magazines with provocative pictures, and her mother had fine clothes … Continue reading →

They made an unlikely gang. Unalike and not likeable. But they dressed the same (in tank tops and Koret™ shorts) and they spoke in code (transistor radiospeak), and if they hadn’t been white suburban girls in 1963 they might have … Continue reading →

Yaya loved working with her mother, but she thought she had to work too hard. Meshie was older and stronger than she, but he didn’t have to do as much. It seemed to Yaya that this was only because he … Continue reading →

Mesopotamia, the land “between the rivers,” invented writing. They didn’t do it for religious or artistic purposes, or even to improve communication. They were record-keepers. They established writing so they could maintain commercial information. They shaped the wheel so they … Continue reading →