My arms, of course, wouldn’t reach those clouds or the stars between them, but I never stopped trying. Last night, when I lay with you in your backyard and we stared up at the stars, I thought about how I used to do this for the first time in a while. I turned to you and told you, and you said, “That’s cute. Let me see you do it now.” So I showed you, and felt so silly doing it. Afterward, we went...

We’re here! The sound of the whistling bells and the tires on the pavement remind me of childhood. How long ago was rhat? Today, it doesn’t matter. Today, we’re having fun, looking around, feeling the sun. Hand in hand like school kids, playing in the grassy fields. Those don’t exist anymore now, do they? But this day does, and this town, and we do. That’s all we can ask for, all we can imagine an...

I saw the crow again, sitting on the same branch. Momma tells me I will die soon. Father tells me sister will die soon. Sister tells me mother will die soon. The town Oracle tells me that since I saw it twice, it might mean that nobody dies at all.

I sit up at night and wonder where the omen of the crow originated from. I find myself asking who the first person was to see a crow and die soon aft...

They waited to say something until it affected their own family.

For years, seeing people in the street, reading about the hardships of the world, hearing the cries of animals and babies alike, they turned a blind eye. “What can I do?” They’d say before bed, sincerely wondering but coming up short with ideas before they passed into sleep and repeated the pattern for another day.

They waited to...

“Once the flowers bloom, we’ll be doomed.” The Priest lowered his arms to his side, robes swaying in the light winter wind. He nodded, and turned back into the church.

The crowd began to panic. Mother grabbed daughter and ran to the hillsides; farmers ran to tell their son to stop tilling the soiling. The Oracle sat on her throne to the left of the priest, alone on the platform now. Her long, ru...

The red dot looks Iike an oddly-placed Christmas ornament, only it’s on my chest and not on a tree. The Sniper found me. Years on the run leads to this, then: a split second decision in which I have two paths: stand and accept the bullet, or run. He knows that I know he has found me; if his mark is there, he sees me, too. So he’s eyeing me now, from some distance, probably smiling, knowing I lost....

My father used to laugh, telling everyone that me, his crazy son, loved haunted houses. “Can’t get enough of ‘em!” He’d say, shaking his head. “Not me. I don’t trust those people!”

It was true. I had the goal of going to every haunted house in every state. Some only opened in October, so that was the busiest month of the year for me. My friends knew not to expect me to be around in those fall mo...

She missed the stage. When she looked in the mirror, she saw those fleeting memories, all those years ago. The bright lights, the flames, the gasping spectators. She longed to be back with them as the head performer of Brighton’s Cirque. Her face on posters, her long, agile limbs talked about on documentaries. She conjured stardust with her hands and sprinkled it on the crowd. Children used to fig...

New destination, this time: mountains. Last time, I parked at the foot of a waterfall. Crazy, right? There are some in the States where you can park right up, if no one else is there already, and I got lucky. Got lucky with this mountain, too. Looking out at it now, at sunset. Makes me appreciate being here with my van, like it’s some friend of mine. It is, in many ways. I make food with the van, ...

“They looked weird, huh?” Andy asked his daughter, looking at the statue of the ancient being. “Human” read the plaque before it, with two hands and two feet and a rounded head. It looked almost grotesque.

“Well, maybe the artist interpreted something into … that, right?” His daughter replied, shaking her head.

“Or maybe they really existed. Maybe someday people will look back at us and think -...