It was noon of a bright winter’s day. The air was crisp with frost, and Nadia, who was walking beside me, found her curls and the delicate down on her upper lip silvered with her own breath. We stood at the summit of a high hill. The ground fell away at our feet in a […]
The Maple Tree Inn started life as a rich man’s farmhouse. “Old Nick’s a rich man, indeed,” my father told me. “He won’t eat hot dogs.” We lived over the ridge from Nick and there was a rolling pasture where I’d train my binoculars on Nick as he hobbled about on his cane. One day […]
A daughter was born one day to the King of a prosperous kingdom. She was christened Malade. She was a very even-tempered and pleasant girl, and a joy for her father to behold, until one day she was afflicted with a tremor about her features. A severe juddering affected her hands and face, and was […]
When I was younger, I lived by a wide canal. In the mornings, the sun rose like a long gold ball on the water. The drawbridge was next to my house and when the bridge went up, the cars lined down the road waiting for the bridge to close. When the bridge went down, the […]
Meryl stood with her two sisters, peeping through the display window of the candy shop, and silently observing the striking array of sweets which were perched upon beautiful crystal dishes and vivid red skirting. Meryl licked her pink lips. At her side stood Wendy who, at seven, was three years younger. And next to Wendy […]
“What are you doing?” Father asked. Billy removed the mirror from under his chin. “I’m imagining what the world would be like upside down,” Billy explained. “You’d have to lift your feet to walk through doorways.” “If gravity stopped, we’d all be dead,” Father said. “Nothing would keep us from flying right out into space, […]
I woke up feeling tired, even though I thought that I had slept through the night. My wife Sally looked like she hadn’t slept much either. I expected her to complain about my snoring, but she surprised me by saying “Duke, when did you become a great singer?” That was a shock in so many […]