Three Baby Cribs and a Missing Set of Car Keys

Before I could answer, the soft rustle of silk came from the doorway. My mother stood there, her fingers resting lightly on her heavy pearl necklace, her face pale but composed. “Let us put this unpleasant business behind us for the sake of the holiday,” she said, her voice sweet and entirely empty. She smiled,…

I went up the stairs at eleven o’clock, the floorboards groaning beneath my feet as I carried my small book toward my bedroom. As I passed Margaret’s closed door, a thin line of yellow light stretched across the dark carpet from the gap at the bottom of the frame. I paused, hearing the faint, distinct…

“Did she come back?” he asked, sitting in the leather chair opposite my desk. “She is back,” I said. “She bought me a trip to Cabo.” Brandon walked over and looked down at the voucher lying on my green blotter. He did not touch it, but he picked up my brass pen and began tapping…

He drove away, his tires kicking up loose gravel. The next afternoon, January twenty-six, I sat at the wooden table in my kitchen. The heater in the corner rattled, trying to keep up with the sub-zero wind outside. I spread the easement agreement under the desk lamp. I adjusted my mother’s silver watch strap, feeling…

“They are neighbors,” I said. “That Fairmont woman was in here yesterday morning,” Thomas said, tapping his pencil against his teeth. “She bought two hundred dollars’ worth of wild bird seed and wrote a check to the school district for five thousand dollars. She is sponsoring the high school band’s trip to the state competition…

He reached across the table and covered my hand with his. His palm was warm, but his fingers were dry and stiff. “We could have dinner at the Blue Heron,” he said. “That nice place right on the bay.” “The Blue Heron is expensive,” I said, remembering the menu prices we had seen last summer….