TODAY IS THE DAY I am to gird my loins and rescue my grandchild Benjy from his dragon mother. I am stiff, bleary eyed and trembling and earplugs cannot silence the cacophony in my head. Instead of feeling fit and ready, the early morning sun swats my fragile eyes, every muscle aches and my ancient … Continue reading
Category Archives: Fiction
Words, Words, Words
It had been a day entangled in language. And not their language: the language of those who would destroy the earth. But they relied on it, it was the only tongue they all understood and, if the vote tomorrow was to favor a possible future, the wording had to satisfy every parochial interest. Time to … Continue reading
The Walk-On
In the taxi heading home from the airport, Trevor prepared himself for the evening ahead. Since his wife’s death, arriving home after a trip was challenging. Wrung out from wrangling a deal with his foreign counterparts, he’d be assailed by his two children bursting to talk or to listen. His fifteen year-old son, Wesley, would … Continue reading
A Nasty Shock
Instead of being welcomed with tears of joy and a bottle of champagne when she returned to her husband and mother, Carole got a nasty shock. When she had left Canada, six months earlier, her mother and husband had reluctantly accepted her decision to do so. She wasn’t surprised. It was always easy to get … Continue reading
Wolf Country
Annoyed by his companion’s smug smile, Arnold glanced furtively out the car window at the hostile white landscape. Everything pointed to a disastrous weekend. When he had decided to stage their last outing at the cottage, he’d failed to consider winter’s potential tyranny. In the city—his arena—the elements were kept under control. In his haste … Continue reading
The Old Farm
We never went down the same road twice, those Sundays, when we searched for The Old Farm. But whatever direction we headed, the final destination was always dirt — a dusty, July road with scratchy, yellow, grass-filled fields on either side. And on those interminable summer Sundays, we never discussed our destination. Our parents, silent … Continue reading
The Dream
According to my father, my grandmother was an alarmist. My mother, in turn, dismisses my father as a wishful thinker—a dreamer—as “it couldn’t happen here.” Until recently, I whistled along with my father, but no longer. Since my colleagues and I were ushered out of our meeting, deprived of our phones and belts and housed … Continue reading
The Third Option
She and Rita hadn’t been in touch for at least six months. Always one thing or another: new brakes for the car, babysitting the grandchild, blood pressure requiring attention and, most annoying, the condo scaffolding under blue netting driving her out of the building. Similar trivial events had kept her away from her usual social … Continue reading
Camp Intruder
Diane bolts up in bed, awakened by the sound of the cabin door creaking open. Twisting to free herself from her tangled sleeping bag, she listens, heart thumping, to hesitant footsteps on the other side of the flimsy wall. As close as a touch, she hears feet shuffling across the small adjoining room and chokes back … Continue reading
The bay
My mission may be futile. Perhaps I imagined the sighting. But the poignant call and the loon’s hesitant plunge persuaded me that I had, after all these years, found my grandmother. And this time I will not be diverted. This time I will honor my promise. It was by chance that I came to this … Continue reading