John often scheduled trips, then changed his mind at the last minute. He’d spend hours looking at maps, photos of diners, old railway stations, Post Offices covered in kudzu, and haunted hotels (where he liked to stay). He’d...

Aiden was a rising literary critic, renowned for his fearless iconoclasm. Twain, Whitman, Kerouac, Emily Dickinson: no one was safe, the living with the dead.  On the eve of the publication of his first book, Aiden awoke to see...

Every night, I roll over to face the empty side of my bed. In varying levels of distress, I call out to a friend. My busy friend always stops by for our chat. I beg. I plead. I offer. It’s when I attempt bribery Death laughs in...

It was difficult to attend her friend’s baby shower. How could she be joyous when she had just lost her own? Little Chloe was delivered prematurely. Her little lungs were not mature enough for her to survive. Tina had sunk into...

Sam Adams met Maria his wife in a dream.  The dream started in high school when he fell asleep in a physics class and saw the most beautiful woman in the world staring at him.  He yelled out, “who are you?” and she...

Alone, I sit silently searching for poachers.  Something murmurs at the far edge of hearing.  An underground spring, or perhaps a wood nymph?  This rifle seems an intrusion in this magical space, but there are...