Sara filled the air with a pitiful cry, from somewhere deep inside her chest, that even made her daddy misty-eyed. She clutched her yellow dog, Milly, around the neck, refusing to let go, and, when Daddy put his hands on her shoulder, she tightened her embrace. Milly’s body was cold,Continue Reading

Etta Langdon sat cradling her baby at a table on the back porch. In the distance, truck tires crunched atop gravel to a slow halt, and, after a few minutes, the driver’s side door groaned open and slammed shut. Reed had come home from his construction job. Etta grinned, wideContinue Reading

Henry Everett The old man lived for the sound of a chicken squawking, the sentry’s warning at which he drew back light from a windowless cabin, a portal cut squarely at eye-level in a single oaken door, then stuck the sightless barrel directionlessly out into night that thundered once withContinue Reading