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Non-fiction Woman with Alzheimer's Sits on a Swing Shaded by an Umbrella by Lynn Johnson I visited my 80 year old mom yesterday. Afterward, I came home and ran for 2 and a half hours (not my usual workout routine!) and slept for two hours last night. My mom is dying. [...] Fiction Leila listens to the sobs of the woman in the jail cell next to her, and wonders if she can hear hers. They seem to mourn together, both devastated by the loss of their freedom. Leila has languished in this prison for the past month, and while her conversations with Anna-Nina are brief, she knows well her situation. They are captives – enslaved by hearsay and accused of acts they did not commit. “The lashings, do they hurt?” Anna-Nina breaks from her crying, and whispers the question. “I don’t know,” Leila replies, hugging her knees against her chest on the steel bed. Leila reflects on the judge’s sentence six we [...] Fiction “Let me show you the rest of the herd. There’s some real beauties waiting for good homes,” Wanda softly cajoled and stepped over to the display window. There, in a thin layer of aquarium sand mixed with bits of straw, stood the remaining figurines, some grazing, others prancing or standing at attention, their transparent little ears pointed alertly upward. The woman stared at the pastoral scene for a good minute, her lips moving as if in prayer. Wanda slipped back behind the counter and patiently watched. Finally, the woman turned and approached with tears pooling in her eyes. [...] Non-fiction
Ambition My life and social calendar seemed to stay perpetually full beginning in mid-2004. I had just returned to the United States from a year-long tour with the U.S. Army in Sinai, Egypt. I had just launched my second career as a contemporary fiction author, was still pursuing my bachelor’s degree from the University [...] Columns Time stood still. Was this the moment I had prayed for? [...] Columns This was no tsunami, after all, no act of God or Nature. [...] Columns From the earliest times until recent millennia, clothes have been symbols of women’s spiritual, political, and cultural authority. [...] Columns “First thing we do is cut that down,” my husband said as he looked up at the gangly thing. The monstrosity seemed to devour the front of the house. Given the damage to the driveway, I knew that we would indeed need to get rid of it. The people selling the house felt differently, though. [...] Fiction She was standing naked in a field of red wheat – the field to the east of her grandparent’s house that she had passed on her way in from Chicago – but she didn’t feel cold or realize she was naked until she saw Paul a few feet away. He was wearing a lab coat, had a stethoscope around his neck, and was examining a shadowy figure on the operating table in front of him. Leni stepped closer and realized that the patient was her grandmother, stiff and still as she had always been, and fully clothed in a long, black dress. She slowly turned her stone face to Leni and spoke. “Ich war schon tot.” [...] Fiction “Taco Bell is my favorite post-bar meal. What about you?” “Sounds fine. I don’t have my car…” “That’s okay,” he interrupted. “I can drive, and then after we eat, I’ll take you home.” “I don’t know…” I hesitated, more because of what I knew Carli’s reaction would be than because of any fear I had of getting in a car with a total (nearly) stranger. “You could be a serial killer.” “Tell you what,” he said, negotiating. “I’ll let you drive, I’ll ride in the back seat on the passenger’s side with my hands folded together, and I won’t say a word.” He smiled. “How’s that for a compromise that even your own mother couldn’t find fault with?” [...]  |
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