Fiction

She sat on the ledge of the sun porch reminiscing about O. In three minutes the sun would slide into the sea at the beach a few miles away. When you've seen sunsets, as he had, from the southern tips of continents and the lips of volcanic lakes, where would the patience come from to…

On a May morning when the sunlight fell thru the window of her Cambridge walk-up and lay like an extra blanket on the narrow daybed, Natalie Imray awakened from a nightmare. She lay quite still and cautiously, slowly, began to reconstruct the content of the dream behind her eyes, her mind reflecting it into words….

If it were possible, I'd lead you out of this room to another room or similar moment. Above a quiet meal, beside a candle, I'd have you repeat what you were saying which I was trying hard to hear. Your idea was so beautifully put it took my breath away. But Polly wouldn't let you…

"Talent," Robert Blaine said in his slow, invalid's voice, "is simply a matter of knowing how to handle yourself." He relaxed on his pillow; eyes gleaming, and shifted his skinny legs under the sheet. "That answer your question?" "Well, now, wait a minute, Bob," Jones said. His wheelchair was drawn up respectfully beside the bed…

In his lifetime Virgil became familiar as anyone with the history of dreams, saw in his palms an old man dreaming as he held them before his face and died. As he became one of the aged dead who sing in our sleep. "There was a man one time," Abigail would say, when Virgil was…

On a Sunday morning in June, Paul and Judith finished cleaning their apartment, left the key in the mailbox, and drove across town to the house Paul had left on a gray and windy day last March. It was the first house his father had ever bought: a small yellow one with a green door,…

Baptized name, William; but in the main, except for when he was in the service, he can't remember being called anything else but Skeeter, no more than he can place when he started drinking so hard. Sometimes, though, this comes back to him: a summer night when he was maybe three or four, fishing for…

Willie Mae worked at the slaughter house slitting hogs' throats. From eight to six she stood with her knife and blood-spattered apron performing her task. Willie Mae was efficient. One sharp slash at the vital vein, one last shrill squeal from the hog and it was over. Bud picked her up at six in the…

"Laney, ready?" I grabbed my bag and ran after her. Slammed the front door behind me. It was a real crisp evening outside. The wind was sharp. Should have brought a sweater but too late now, she wouldn't wait for me to get one. I got into the car and slammed the door. Before we…