The frail woman pulls her coat shut, bunches her scarf, and shoves her hands deep into fur-lined pockets. In one of her hands, she imagines three plastic bags. Estelle knows the bags aren’t real. Just like she knows not to shout her dog’s name aloud in public. She knows he…

I remember the first time Beckett showed me the prototype. I met him in the parking lot of a Starbucks on Parker. He unloaded the garish thing from the bed of his truck, and I helped him lower it to the pavement. …

Until last night, this morning even, it was always Marcus’s responsibility to keep the coal bin loaded and to keep the fire stoked. He was the last of the boys. The last of my brothers. The last of my siblings. It was the pox that got Johnny. Then Billy, Bobby…

“You think I don’t trust you? Unbelievable. I can’t believe you sometimes, Laura,” Liza says, dropping to her knees. She opens her fanny pack and fishes for something from its dark nylon depths. She stands up, holding the scarf. Oh no. Not this again. “Liza, the race is about to…

Sometimes your family finds you. — The tide is turning. I never remember if it is in or out. But the ocean noises change when the tide turns. I can’t remember who taught me that. Maybe my grandmother? I was named after my other grandmother, Stella. She had had six boys and never knew how to…

The heat is stifling. Our footsteps are an endless string of dry crunches on the shoulder of California State Route 190. Whose idea was it to put a bed-and-breakfast in Death Valley? Something tugs at my consciousness. She looks at her phone again. She always looks at her phone at…

“It’s a nice room.” The voice is familiar, but I can’t place it. Am I sleeping? Dreaming? I hear a series of melodic beeps filling the air. They have their own distinctive pitch and period. But that can’t be right, I’m no longer…, “Wayne, he’s waking up,” a soft voice…

The stage is smaller than I was expecting. The spotlights feel hot on my skin and my eyes water from the white light. I begin my routine. I don’t have to wait long for my first buzzer. I stay focused and don’t pull my eyes off my model. I suspect…