Margaret Walks Across the High School Stage on a Warm June Morning

At 12:15 PM, a customer in a brown canvas jacket stepped up to the counter. He held a laminated menu for a moment, then pointed to the daily special. “Just the turkey club to go,” the man said, pulling a twenty-dollar bill from his leather wallet. Troy stood at the register, his expression blank. He…

The waiting room of Oak Creek Pediatrics was quiet, smelling of floor wax and lavender soap. I sat on the vinyl bench with Soleil on my lap while my mother rocked the double stroller near the reception desk. A poster of a cartoon giraffe lined the wall opposite us. Dr. Gray, a tall man who…

My mother’s silver watch slid down my wrist, the metal links cold against my skin. I stopped to pull the strap tighter, two notches past where she used to wear it. Her wrist had been thicker than mine, softened by thirty years of working the family garden. My father had given her the watch for…

I turned the gas knob off. “Just someone from his work, probably.” “She has a fitness page,” Margot said, her thumb tapping the screen to show a logo. “He should be ashamed of himself.” She twirled a blue hair elastic around her wrist, over and over, until her skin turned pink. I took the phone…

“Inside,” she whispered, stepping past me into the warmth of the hallway. We walked up to my dressing room without speaking a word. She set the black case on the vanity table and unzipped it, the metallic slide sounding loud in the small room. Inside lay three wooden blocks, each holding a different wig of…

“Maribel?” I called out, stepping onto the worn yellow linoleum. The house was unusually quiet, the only sound being the low hum of the old refrigerator in the corner. I set the basket on the laminate counter next to a pile of unopened junk mail and a yellowing grocery list. My eyes fell on a…