Moose in the Road

I spotted Kirsten, finally, in the cafeteria line. She was between two nurses wearing the neonatal uniform of blue scrubs, face masks under their chins, stethoscopes draping their necks. As an aide in the department, Kirsten wore street clothes and a lab coat. I watched her smile and chat for a second with her mother, …

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Rupuze…a fairy tale

(ROOP-uh-zha) Lithuanian for ‘frog’ and what you might call a person you didn’t like very much…including yourself). Once there was a handsome young man who lived high in the mountains next to a sky-blue lake. Every single day, starting with the first day the ice melted in the Spring until the last leaf fell in …

Novels Are Safer

can a husband and wife over-share? Marjorie noticed the white running shoes on a four-year old boy following a man, likely his father, out of the restaurant. In the parking lot, she spotted the same man handing over a car seat from his shiny black Tundra along with the boy to a woman who hugged …

Nobody Asked Lazarus

What if you experienced a medical miracle? I’m sitting on a bench and I feel a tingle on my legs. I rub. It feels good. White stuff like big chunks of dandruff fall around my shoes. Now my back itches—sort of. I rub it against the bench-back. That feels so good. Now my neck. My …

Ankle Length Rorschach

an Amish woman creates a stir at Sarasota Beach Clete I heerd they was Amish ‘round Sarasota. Jis’ never thought to see any down on the beach. Like that woman in the purple dress an her curly headed boy—him playin’ with  a football by the water and her jumping up ever couple minutes to drag …

Lip Reading

a sketch about pitching life-markers Jacob watched as her mouth crinkled into a full-lipped pout. He had always liked her lips. They must have given major delight to the men in her life. Maxine. He was never one of the men. Not one of the lip-sharing men, anyhow. He and Max were ‘buds’. Work buddies. …

Minding Carmen Rivera

when supervision gets personal They arrived at the door to the courtyard at the same time. “Where’re you heading?” Jared asked. “Sandwich Express,” Carmen replied, offering an apologetic shrug. Because he managed twenty-two women in a customer service department, Jared had to beware of singling out any particular one. He would, however, allow a one-off, …