A dark in the fog
Fog lay heavy on the old forest. It was midnight and the yellow wagon creaked and groaned as it inched along the rutted road. Light came from just a few places: the candle in the cast iron lantern that hung at the front of the wagon, the orange and red ember glow of Phoenix’s feathers, […]
Across the sky
She wanted the rain to come. The funeral was done and she felt there should now be rain, but there was none. The world felt ready for rain. It was grey and the air was thick, and there had been a funeral. But the rain did not come. All there was was a wish for […]
That’ll Be The Day
He was slender and wore black-framed Buddy Holly glasses, and after I decided he looked like Buddy Holly I felt sick when I saw him because I ached for him to grab a microphone and sing “That’ll Be The Day” to me.
A recipe for music
There was a mountain that towered above a town. The spirit of the mountain was a young girl, and the spirit lived on top of the mountain. The spirit worked in a little wooden workshop on the mountaintop. Inside the workshop the spirit made all of the things that make a mountain a mountain. The […]
Cape Town’s cable car
CAPE TOWN, South Africa—I am a journalist living in Cape Town, South Africa. The writing I do here comes from “listening to the city and its people” and writing down what both have to say. Cape Town could be any city or place. There is no specific reason why I am writing about Cape Town […]
Magic
The baker felt in his heart that he was a wizard who could do all different kinds of magic. ‘What isn’t magical,’ he thought, ‘about taking things that look nothing like bread, and making something that brings people together as if drawn by some unseen force?’ He loved this feeling, because he had once been […]
The Far Shore
The mouse took a deep breath and looked at the rocks on the far side of the river. He gripped his oars. Between him and the rocks the water flowed fast and the rapids churned and swirled to make the whitest foam. Behind him on the shore stood a bobcat with cinnamon fur and a […]
The Latch
The man stared at the leather suitcase that sat closed on the floor. He glanced around his apartment, where the whitewashed walls were bare and his bedroom and all the other rooms were empty. When he closed his eyes he saw his home as it had been: shelves brimming with books, little ghost lights strung […]
The Skeletons of Bonneville
TRUCKEE, Calif.—The wind blows hard in the Sierras, and when the sun is gone there is a cold that freezes me at night. When the cold releases me in the morning, I feel new. The air here smells of vanilla. The smell comes from trees, and I wonder how it is that a tree could […]
The Carousel
I was at a rock-climbing gym, and I saw a woman climbing up a wall. I imagined her climbing up into the underside of an old mechanical carousel made of brass gears and sprockets. The carousel isn’t moving, and the woman climbs through its inner machinery. One moment she’s reaching for climbing holds, and the […]