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

The car was dented and faded, its rear bumper held together with silver duct tape. Through the cracked side window of his truck, Carter could see the outline of Henry’s head against the headrest. The old man was sitting perfectly still in the driver’s seat. A faded brown wool blanket was pulled up to his…

I stood in the quiet lobby, the smell of old radiator steam filling the small space. My father’s signature on the bank freeze document had effectively cut off my access to my own money, leaving me with no way to secure the apartment if I had to leave Elm Street. “I will have to call…

But there was no rest to be found in the quiet townhouse on Beacon Hill. By Tuesday morning, the rain had cleared, leaving the granite steps of the townhouse slick and dark under a pale winter sky. Lucia, my stylist of twelve years, arrived at eight, her small black leather case in hand. She set…

The fields stretched out before me, two hundred acres of grey, dry prairie grass that should have been turned over three weeks ago. The neighbor’s fields to the north were already showing the first green mist of winter wheat. My soil was silent. I looked down at my hands. The skin around my knuckles was…

When I reached my gate, I did not put another padlock on the chain. I left the chain hanging. If Arthur wanted to think he had cleared his path, I would let him think it. I drove up the winding driveway to the cabin. The house looked small and lonely against the vast gray expanse…

“She wants to cancel the individual family portraits altogether now,” Mason said. He rubbed his collarbone with his right hand, his thumb digging into the skin right above his collar. “She told me it would save forty minutes on the schedule, but we both know what she is actually doing. She is trying to make…