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

These were the spare keys I had spent the last two years collecting from Vanessa’s kitchen drawer, from the hook behind my mother’s pantry door, and from the plastic box under the fake rock in the garden. I had reclaimed every single duplicate that existed, ensuring that no one else could ever walk into my…

Cornelius looked at the screen, his fingers twitching against his thigh. The wolves in the video were heavy, their shoulders shifting as they pulled at the meat in the gray light of dawn. “That is a public safety issue,” Cornelius said, his voice dropping its corporate edge. “You cannot live out here with those things.”…

“Let us go home first,” I said. We drove back to Martha’s house in silence, the afternoon light turning the live oaks along the boulevard a deep, dark green. Martha was waiting on her front porch, her wool shawl wrapped tight around her shoulders as she watched the street. “Is it done?” she asked as…

I straightened my wristwatch, the small metal buckle clicking into place as I adjusted the strap. The quiet of the office was broken only by the sound of Fletcher’s printer warming up in the alcove, a low hum that seemed to vibrate through the floorboards. “You assured me the house was safe from the creditors,”…

We watched him from our kitchen table, a small gray figure on a five-inch screen, surrounded by wind and blowing sand. “Do you think he will call us?” Margot asked. “He won’t call today,” I said. “He has too many people to explain this to first.” I pulled the blue nursery blanket closer around my…

When we reached the front porch, the autumn sun was pale behind a thin sheet of high clouds. Owen walked down the steps slowly, his hand holding mine so tightly his knuckles were white. I opened the passenger door of the sedan and helped him into his booster seat, pulling the shoulder strap across his…