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

“Well, you are ahead of schedule, Maribel,” I said, setting my purse on the small side table. “I wanted to make sure everything was ready before the traffic started on Friday,” she said. Her voice was thin, the short, breathless sentences coming quicker than they used to. She adjusted her blue silk scarf with trembling…

I picked up the folder. It had a surprising weight to it, as if the physical reality of my marriage’s end had been compressed into those fifty sheets of paper. Inside this folder was the destruction of the life I had known, the public exposure of the man I had loved, and the cold truth…

The house smelled of furniture polish and lemon oil, a clean, sterile scent that had always defined my childhood. From the dining room, the light clink of silverware against porcelain drifted into the hall. It was exactly one o’clock. We walked through the carpeted hallway and stood in the archway of the dining room. My…

A high chain-link fence topped with barbed wire surrounded six long rows of low, green metal buildings. I parked the sedan near the office, a small concrete block structure with a faded blue sign that said Office. The engine died with a wet sputter, leaving only the sound of the wind rattling the metal sign…

Across from me, Marcus sat with his hands flat on the polished wood, rotating his gold signet ring with a slow, mechanical rhythm. To his left sat Evelyn, her wool coat still draped over her shoulders, her three-strand pearl necklace gleaming against her high-collared silk blouse. Arthur stood near the tall window, both hands buried…

I sat on the bottom step of the staircase inside the front entry, my coat zipped to my chin. The hallway was stripped of the small runner rug I had bought my first year here, leaving only the pale wood and the dark line of dust where the wool had ended. Above me, the empty…