The Boy

When the house key clicked in the lock, Diane hesitated. With Tom’s departure, she had hoped that the house would be empty of both the quick and the dead. No such luck. Instead of the reassuring sight of the cluttered hallway, the long corridor appeared distended, as if viewed through the wrong end of binoculars. … Continue reading

Winter Birds

Maria studies her family clustered around the table, hopeful not of food but of deliverance. She is stretching her arthritic limbs towards a decision—albeit not in the direction her family anticipates—but the last few inches are excruciating and perhaps the goal is unobtainable. A peacemaker and the core of a happy family all her life, … Continue reading

The Circus and the Library

When the circus married the library, she was only a small fair. Once the nuptials were performed, however, audience demands increased. The circus, always stumbling to satisfy, expanded and diversified. With frantic compliance, she added more and more acts. Although frightened of heights, the circus cared enough to include a trapeze act. Clothed in a … Continue reading

The Spider

When she hears her mother calling from the hall below, Kathryn scurried behind the wing-back chair in the library. Her heartbeat quickened as footsteps mounted the stairs, the door creaked open. “Kathryn?” Silence. “She’s not here.” The door shut. “That child.” After a few moments, her fear overcome by curiosity, the child crept out to … Continue reading

Jack Jackson

Jack Jackson, a traveling salesman, always sold his quota of elephants: the customers liked him and he knew how to excite a quick win-win deal. He always thought to mention to prospective customers that he was putting his dog through university. And, in tough cases, he would add sadly that his alligator-in-law had been deep … Continue reading

Going Out

“Eat,” her mother urges, shoving a spatula of home fries at her daughter. The girl recoils. Usually her appetite is as hearty as her younger brother Geoffrey’s but today food sticks like woodchips in her throat. If she blurts the news out at the supper table, the film will freeze mid–frame: broken faces, arguments, her … Continue reading

Africa

She will never see Africa. She knows that now. She will never foray out from the trees onto the Savannah. Never follow the Nile. Never. Not in a few years. Not when the children are older. Not when she has saved enough money. Never. She is here, her feet not planted in the soft sand … Continue reading

Cyclops, One

Freddie would pick her up that day. He’d drive straight from the airport, smile his greetings, wheel her out the door, and off they would go to Winnipeg. Be cold there. Sure would. But Mrs. Millar was used to that. Grew up in Ontario, knew what winter meant. She’d better hurry. Not one of those … Continue reading