Ghost Parachute

The teen ballerina dies in the locker room. Her ghost peels itself away from her body and overlooks the carnage, studying the way her cracked chest parts to reveal her insides. The teen ballerina has paid enough attention in biology class to know her heart is gone. The floor of the locker room is covered […]

“Don’t open that.” I pause with my hand on the dishwasher. “Why not?” “There’s a man in there.” “Is that right?” The reflection warps my smile into a sneer. “What sort of man?” A drawstring tightens in my son’s forehead, pulling his eyebrows together. “A bad man. He has a mouthful of pinecones, and there’s […]

My father tells me I’m different. He doesn’t say how, or if different is bad. Just leaves the word twirling and swirling around like the time he flushed my not-dead goldfish down the toilet. He said he was teaching me a lesson. Wouldn’t say what the lesson was or where the goldfish was going. My […]

It wasn’t long into their relationship that her “I” key stopped working. She started typing things like: “want to have sex” and “like beer & cheese.” He took from these what he could and thought how lucky am I? I found someone who gives and gives and gives. Selfishness is not a trait he likes. […]

Because her clarinet is damaged, she’s doing homework in the back of the shadowed auditorium instead of finishing “Sugartime” when three boys surround her. Without speaking, they lift her skirt. As if she is a specimen, they stare, then vanish through an exit. On stage, the junior high band packs their instruments. Like them, she […]

My sister is hiding from her boyfriend. He thinks it’s a game. He looks behind the drapes in the living room, in the hall closet, behind the kitchen door. He’s singing. “Dear little Penelope, where is my Penny, where can she be?” He winks at me to let me in on the game. She told […]