Ghost Parachute

At Cedar Point, while waiting in line for the Corkscrew: That’s where I had my first kiss, I tell Cal. Since my friend Polly’s husband shot himself in the head—in their bedroom, where, of course, she was the one to find him: that evening when she returned home from work—I’ve been telling my husband of […]

Cynara (Unit 12) There was a cockroach in the bathroom. Cynara screamed. Her husband didn’t come running. “Babe?” Cynara had spent a lifetime mastering the art of raising one’s voice while also infusing it with the threat of tears. “What?” Cynara’s husband didn’t run, but he knew better than not to move. So he muttered […]

It was the Halloween when Matias had thrown up in the Viking helmet. He was only four and throwing up had become his go-to any time he picked up a cold. There were times mom would hug him and let him heave all over her, and we’d only know she wasn’t impervious when we’d hear […]

When China fired a volley of ballistic missiles into the Taiwan Straits, and scrambled nuclear-capable bombers into the Taiwan Air Defense Zone, threatening to turn the island into a sea of fire, probably just saber rattling but with the volatile Chinese government you just never know, that’s when my father-in-law who lived three houses down […]

This time, when she said she was drowning, leaving you for good, you should have believed her, but how were you to know this time would be any different from last year, when she packed her bags, drove to Kohl’s, came home with more bags and bags and bags full of maternity clothes, having burnt […]

Roy Keller’s family had his basement redone, creating what his father called a den. It had a mahogany bar, shelves for dozens of bottles, and hooks where all sizes of glasses hung like sparkling hats. My father didn’t drink. Chris Coleman’s family had an in-ground swimming pool overlooked, on one side, by a redwood deck […]