When I was a child, I used to talk to Mr. Harrell, who had a habit of visiting me every Sunday. I don’t remember how old I was back then; probably eight or nine. At the time, we had just moved into a new neighborhood that was starting to settle. The street we lived on […]
My neighborhood was an urban menagerie. Snakes and snapping turtles mingled with fast–food wrappers in the creek. Tadpoles swam in street puddles after spring storms. Months later, cars left frog skins baking into the asphalt. The green anole lizard was my favorite. Something about their beady eyes and the way they fought their reflection in […]
The girl is seven. The boys are older, maybe nine. From the kitchen window, she watches them try to blow the lid off a garbage can with firecrackers. They hoot and holler. Then they see a cat, and one of the boys grabs the cat and tells the others to run into the garage and […]
The man’s nails dig into my skin, leaving angry red crescents alongside the needle marks in my arms. My feet are folded under me, scraping against the floor as he drags me forward. The man is over six feet tall with a shaved head and stubble on his face, and he reeks of cigarettes. He […]