Flynn Cadara looked up at the sky. It was getting dark. He knew that he needed to head back to the cabin. It would be dinnertime undeniably, and he didn’t want to miss it. “Tam!” Flynn called out. A large, wolf-like dog appeared, heading toward Flynn at a slow trot. “It’s time to head home,” Flynn said. “Did you find anything interesting?” “There’s a large herd of elk not far from here,” Tam said to him, looking up at…
She is leaning against the school sign that reads “Half- Day Friday!” Her brown hair comes only to her chin. In her hand she carries a plain, brown book. I have never seen her before, but I know at once she is my friend. “Kara, don’t forget your lunch bag,” my mother says from the front seat, jerking me from my thoughts. I nod, take it from her and start across the lawn. “What did your mommy want, Kara?” Cheryl…
I sat alone in the dark, feeling the boat rock from side to side. The hollow sounds the boat made as the waves hit it told me how deep the water was beneath us. “Creaak, Creaak.” What was that noise? “It’s nothing,” I told myself. “It’s nothing.” But it is something: the sound of a woman, starving in the hills, begging by the road for a coffin for her dead child. The sound of a man pulling blackened potatoes from…
A furious gust of wind howled down the moonlit lane, sending a cascade of freshly fallen snowflakes tumbling from the treetops, up and over the rooftops, whirling around the lampposts, before finally slamming into the row of houses that lined either side of the street. The houses strained against the frigid blast, creaking and groaning, all the while steadfastly shielding the inhabitants lying dormant inside. The wind struggled for a moment, moaning with the sheer force of which it pushed…
Brrriing!! The bell announced that school was out. Kids poured out from different classes and the slams of lockers could be heard. While the rest of the kids ran out the door and into the winter air, Odette Barry walked patiently to the outside of the school. She was in no rush to arrive home to her demanding grandmother who insisted on being read her favorite childhood books. If Odette was lucky, she would arrive home at the time of…
Sarah stared at the detail in the rigging of the tiny ship inside the glass bottle the window of the Chandlery had to offer. She hoped someday it could be her personal vessel. If it were hers, oh, the marvelous adventures she would send it on! But the time for daydreaming was over. The day was becoming eclipsed. She surveyed the horizon where the pale blue cloudless sky sank swiftly into inky surf. Down by the docks, she knew her…
Jimmy Culpepper looked out through the bay window fogged up with lazy steam. He couldn’t believe his eyes. There was a squall shaping up outside, a true-life Maine nor’easter. It wasn’t so much that he minded a good ol’- fashioned nor’easter so much as he minded it today, now. This was the celebration he and his older sister, along with his grandparents, had plotted so long and hard for. Today was his parents’ twentieth wedding anniversary and the gala send-off…
Aneesa sat with her legs tucked into her chest, her chin sat limply on the worn denim that covered her knees. Her shoes were a well-loved pair of classic black Converse, the rubber parts entirely decorated with Sharpie. Her dark brown hair, so dark it looked black at first glance, hung over her face, putting a veil between herself and the world. She always wanted a cover from the world, even if it was just a hood or something small….
It was spring in the mountains of Washington—a time of beauty and change. The heaviness of the snow was melting away, flooding the brooks and allowing the pines to stretch their branches once again after a long winter. Leaves were budding on the trees, no longer icy and dead. The whole world, it seemed, was slowly turning colors. Anne was sitting in the majesty of it all, lying back upon a rock and watching the geese disappearing into the clouds…
Walking through the old, silent house was like walking through one of the photo albums in the big wooden chest in Liesa’s room. It pulsed with the heartbeat of memories as time stood perfectly still. Liesa’s thoughts echoed in her mind as the cool, dark house danced with shadows from the sun flitting through the trees outside the windows. It looked so… empty. Liesa had been told weeks ago that this ancient house would be vacant soon, that it was…
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