“Happy Birthday to You” is the most often sung song in America. A bumblebee beats its wings about 160 times a second. Sleeping Beauty slept for one hundred years. Queen Elizabeth I had more than two thousand dresses. More presidents have been born in the state of Virginia than any other state. Sharks are the Read more
I am not a New Yorker, and I want to go home. There are so many unspoken rules when you live here, like the way you’re never supposed to stop in the middle of the sidewalk or stare dreamily up at tall buildings or pause to read graffiti. No giant folding maps, no fanny packs, Read more
A cacophony of ticktocking resounds through the otherwise hushed clockmaker’s shop. When I first came to live with Uncle Holden, the relentless ticking drove me mad. A decade later, the chant of time is now a comfort—his handcrafted timepieces echo the cadence of my wooden clockwork heart. The bell on the front door jingles, and Read more
When Dr Parsons finally ran out of alternatives and reached the word ‘cancer’, he moved past it so quickly I almost thought I’d imagined it. He told me that boys of my age reacted very well to treatment. My mother took over the conversation at that point, launching them both into a lengthy discussion of Read more
So this is how it feels to take a man’s life. Forced to kill for one’s own survival. I looked down at the puddle of blood by my feet, locking eyes with my own reflection. Fluorescent lights flickered overhead. How’d I get here? I was just a dude who worked at the grocery store. Now Read more
“Ladies.” Amelia clapped, and all ten dancers stopped moving. The air went still. “Find a seat.” Esme found a place on the hardwood floor. A grapefruit candle burned in the corner. The air smelled fresh even though there was fog on the mirror from a room of sweating, heaving dancers. Afternoon light spilled through the Read more
Solomon never needed to leave the house anyway. He had food. He had water. He could see the mountains from his bedroom window, and his parents were so busy all the time that he pretty much got to be sole ruler of the house. Jason and Valerie Reed let it be this way because, eventually, Read more
