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
Category Archives: Fiction
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
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
Two Against One
Seeing the two of them standing there stiff as statues set my blood boiling. They were hunkered together—my four-year-old daughter and 75-year-old stepmother—gazing up and down the street as if awaiting heavenly guidance. Why didn’t they move? When I offered to accompany them, I did so without implying they couldn’t find their own way to … Continue reading
Lips Sealed
Although they were sitting side by side she was as distant from him as she was from the animals at the zoo. Some scientists argued that other animal species could communicate with one another but Bimble doubted that was the case. As it was, she couldn’t even converse with this other type of human. But … Continue reading
Disparate Souls
When his thin face hurled over the hood of her startled car, her body tightened. In that moment, the victims were joined as one: two disparate souls leaving abandoned families and friends, desperate to understand why. The car door opened, a stranger, etched as witness to her demise, yanked her shoulder. “You alright?” “Is he … Continue reading
Chalk and Cheese
Hidden under her ratty brown blanket, the blinds closed, the doors double locked, no TV, no radio, Thimble’s last link was her phone and off it went. It had to be her twin sister Station. Who else was there? She had disposed of all the nuisance calls and long since dissuaded friends from contacting her. … Continue reading
The Circle
As far back as her memory stretched, she was just one of many clustered around the fire. At first, the circle had been small, but, as she grew older, it widened to include all those who brought warmth into her life. These were not people on television or on the web or in the newspaper; … Continue reading