It’s Christmas day, and as the kids grumble about the gifts they didn’t receive, you’re in the kitchen, surrounded by the sharp aroma of minced onions while completing the repetitive task of removing the thick, robust skin of the potatoes. The kitchen is filled with the pungent and sweet fragrance of herbs as the flavors ...

With a sputter, the converted bus springs to life. Grinning, Kalie guides it to the glittering starway leading up along the horizon’s green twilight and into the thickening darkness above. She points it straight at the glowing, round moon still sitting low and red in the sky. Kalie can only see the outline of the ...

“Mary! Child, where are you? I need your assistance with these Christmas decorations. Mary!” Mama’s cries grow fainter as I briskly walk further down the corridor away from her room. Hopefully she will not notice me if I hide in the kitchen. Cook smiles at me when I enter the pantry, knowing why I am ...

Louise tossed on her bed and turned onto her back. She twisted a blond curl splayed out on the pillow. The lights strung on the bushes outside her window took turns glowing red and green on her ceiling. In the predawn hours, Louise rose and pulled on a flannel shirt and jeans. She slid on ...

“We will go to our own Nathan Oswalin for our next story. He had the chance to interview a world-renowned graffiti artist,” Janet said with a professional smile.  She could hear Nathan in her earpiece as the story cut to him and the graffiti artist. A moment later, the director motioned to cut.  She quickly ...

“Oh, what a good joke! No one will guess tomorrow I’ll be Mrs. Lydia Wickham. I, the youngest sister, first to be married. Mama will be so happy!”  Lydia Bennet turns to the lit candle on the nightstand and blows out the flame. With her room completely dark, she is positive no one in the ...

Jade Home is the old farmhouse in the middle of the prairie, miles outside of town. Where Pa tended to pigs, and Ma, the best seamstress around. You hated the bacon she served. Ma and Pa told you to be grateful. In protest, you ran through Pa’s soybean fields in one of Ma’s hand-sewn party ...

My name is Shanequia, and I have a story to tell you. You won’t believe me, but I swear on a stack of bibles that every word is true. The day started with cool, crisp temps like any other fall day. Leaves were bursting in maroon, orange, and saffron. Not a cloud in the azure ...

The landlord was right. The passing trains behind her row home had become white noise. Hattie lived her life around the comings and goings of thousands of commuters. She was one of them. Departed at 6:39, returned at 5:10. The train rattled like a dog shaking the rain from its fur just before it dipped ...

I drop my keys for the last time as I struggle to unlock my front door.  “It shouldn’t be this hard to open a damn door.”  My fists pound the hardwood, hoping Reginald would hear me and that my housemates were still out.  “Who is it?” My hands move to my hips, and irritation is ...