THE ARCHIVE
ALICE’S TRIP
Alice slapped her hand across her lips and held it tight to her mouth, the cup of her finger digging deep into the flesh of her cheek. All life in the restaurant collectively died, the moment those two words left her…
NORAH’S BARQUE
Our farm was on an island where my husband and I had chosen to live. Our children had been born here, and had grown into adults here. When I tell my story to the new ones as they come along, as I so often do, the first question always is…
THULE
I recently received an email from a Norwegian scientist, a longtime, if distant, colleague and mentor. The letter disclosed that he was near the end of his life, and it was with great urgency…
the rage of a wildfire
See, I grow immensely! I am eating the hill. I leap off the cliff. I plunge into the canyon. I stand on the ridge. Brother wind is at my back. I swallow whole, the mountains and pastures. I am a magnificent presence, feeding on everything I touch and stir. They are above me now, in the skies with hapless buckets of water tinkling down…
hark, hark, the dogs do bark
The main road leading into town is not paved. It is drained and ditched for winter snow and it has gravel on its surface, but it is rough and rutted, too rough to be inviting, as the residents of this town had intended. There is no directional sign and no road name. The little road comes off US 30 in the heart of Nebraska at a nondescript junction with only a row of mailboxes in evidence. Washboard rattles its course and stones scar its surface. A random traveler coming upon…
a bedtime story
A messy young man’s bedroom, last night’s pants are half off the chair, underpants splayed beneath the bed, abandoned beer bottles inhabit a corner, piles of discards and dirty clothes are scattered about. The young man lies face down on his crunched pillow, his mother has placed herself at the foot of the bed to get him up for his day’s work. He sleeps on.
