William Edwards Leaves His Screaming Son on a Friday Afternoon in Hartford

The pink folder was not there. I pulled the drawer out further, the metal tracks squeaking in the quiet hallway. I sorted through the folders again, slower this time, my fingers checking the space between every single tab. My hand brushed against a small piece of paper stuck to the very back of the drawer….

As the car began to roll down the brick incline toward Beacon Street, I reached up and flipped down the small sun visor. I adjusted the rectangular glass until I could see my own eyes, then looked at the straight, silver edge of my new hair. The car turned toward the harbor, the gray water…

“He took both sets of keys before he got into his friend’s car,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. Shaun stood by the refrigerator, his boots leaving faint dusty prints on the linoleum. He did not raise his voice or pace the room, but his right foot began to tap a steady, heavy…

The document listed Marcus Webb as the grantor. The grantee line was filled in with a name that made my breath catch, though I kept my face completely still in the dim light of the desk lamp. I turned the page to the signature block. At the bottom of the sheet, the witness line was…

Margot sat across from me, her chin resting in her hands. She sorted the coins into neat stacks of ten. “Is Dad coming back to pay the oil bill?” she asked. “We have plenty of wood for the fireplace,” I said, stacking four quarters. “Are we going to lose the house, Mom?” I looked at…

By nine o’clock, the house was silent again. Anna had taken the silver Sienna to drop Marcus off at his elementary school, leaving me with an hour before my first remote status meeting. I sat at the dining room table with the alumni letter spread out before me. The writer spoke of Anna’s undergraduate research…