Alice Randall drove along a desolate road amid the soaked barren wheat fields of northern Kansas. Stands of bare trees separated neighboring properties. Every so often, she would spot hunters in orange vests wandering over the dark wet soil. When she reached Masonville, she took a brief tour of the town to see what had changed. Grandpa Hendricks’ house had been painted bright green, and the front steps were falling
The man across the table glared at Howard Collins and said, “Hey, I pay your salary, dude. You have no right to hold out on me. You know damn well I’m allergic to Tramadol. I need Percocet. I’m in pain! Can’t you see that?” Howard considered the irony. He had spent several years and $140,000 on his education to secure his job as a physician assistant. Now, a homeless man
On her afternoon walk, Amanda Tournier noticed a big cardboard box sitting in the middle of her neighborhood park. She stopped and crossed her arms. “It’s probably empty,” she thought. She sat down on a nearby bench and let her imagination fill the box full of latent desires. A leather briefcase full of $100 bills. An envelope containing a remorseful letter from her ex-boyfriend Mason begging for forgiveness. An iPhone
The ’67 Cadillac shot down a desolate prairie road and skidded into the parking lot of a diner, kicking up a wall of dust. Zeke threw the car in park, left it running, and ran inside. Whitney was placing a chicken fried steak in front of a lone customer from across the counter. Zeke grabbed her wrist below the scars that ran up her forearm and said, “They figured out
It’s an old railroad style house fronting a thin street, not far from the train tracks and stockyards. Cole comes out the front door for a moment to check on his motorcycle. He won’t be staying long, but it’s dusk and he knows the neighborhood. The icy wind stings his face like bees. He’s visiting Lillian, his mother. She’s invited him here, as she does once in a blue moon,
I held back my breath for a time, but you didn’t. You had been to the very edge of the world. You knew the sound of the wind, low and constant, thrumming against the land, the ice, the sea. You’d seen how the pale gray-green earth disappeared beneath ice and snow, and then how that white arc of land thrust into the slate colored sea. How that arc dwindled towards
