By the time Mae Watkins came in to check on her, Cheryl was standing at the sink dabbing her forehead with a moistened paper towel. “I figured you might need this,” Mae said, holding up Cheryl’s purse. “It came off the plane a minute ago.” Cheryl had to stop herself from diving at the proffered […]
The forty-minute flight from Washington DC had been bad enough, their eighteen-seat prop jet bucking and yawing on every stray gust, but when Cheryl stepped out onto the tarmac at the tiny Lathrop airfield and felt that first rude slap of Southern humidity, her stomach lurched again into her throat. Cheryl Crawford had been raised […]
Death grabbed hold of my son’s body. Its power lingered over his head, attending without permission, bringing chaos, inspiring awe, and spreading a sense of anxiety and alarm. It demonstrated its inexorable strength as my four-year-old child made a temporary visit to the otherworld before Allah answered my invocations. That day began as a sunny, […]
I met my new roommate, John Clark Hoover, on the first day at college. He was spread out on a multicolored quilt reading Slaughterhouse Five, smoking a joint. He greeted me with a simple wave of his jointed hand without taking his eyes off the book’s page. He eventually offered me a toke, which I […]