The river gathers the PA announcer's voice and propels it across town toward me. The sound collects, echoing, beneath the empty metal canopy over the ice rink. For a moment, the voice bounces around the vacant concrete as if a phantom hockey game is being played. "Corning goal number blah-blah. Tanner Somebody." I chuckle to … Continue reading History-Blind
#creative non-fiction
Unraveling Time
The line of people loops from the casket through the viewing room, past the front door, and through the second viewing room, where it angles and turns back on itself again in a narrow hallway. Outside, the wind skirls in the lavender twilight and slings the newly budded branches of a flowering tree back and … Continue reading Unraveling Time
Hay Bales in a Pond
We fix the GPS to avoid highways and weave our way out of town. It's an easy way to discover adventure on a lazy Saturday. We turn onto roads we've never driven before and travel alongside a creek swollen with the spring thaw. The further up the hill we ride, we pass three--- maybe four--- … Continue reading Hay Bales in a Pond
The Depths of Procrastination
I walk out to my kitchen. The cold floor tiles numb my bare feet, but I stand at the sink for a moment. I’m avoiding things. A pile of things. I reach over for my stainless steel french press. The plunger makes a metallic zing when I remove it from the carafe. Oh, yes, I’m … Continue reading The Depths of Procrastination
Sisterhood in Snapshot
When my sisters and I get together, it can be a bit bewildering. We will sit around and everyone will speak at once and LOUDLY— and heaven help whoever the non-sister is sitting in our midst. “What’s that one movie?... Oh… We should watch it with him sometime—” my older sister says of her boyfriend. … Continue reading Sisterhood in Snapshot
Circuitry
"Come on. It'll only take a minute," he says. I follow him into the night. The darkness is gray with shadow. We walk through the lawn, and my feet slip against my Flip-flops, wet with dew. He opens the garage door, bends down to plug in the lights. A sudden brilliant fluorescence. I follow him … Continue reading Circuitry
Here’s Your Lighthearted Note
Here's your lighthearted fluff for the day! As many of you know, I enjoy running (see Runner's High). Many of you may also know that I have a cat. How are these two things related you ask? Are you some sort of cat whisperer, Katie, that you've convinced your feline to run with you? No. … Continue reading Here’s Your Lighthearted Note
The Fault Lines of Nostalgia
When I was a child, I was fascinated by abandoned things. Houses, roads, plots of land, store fronts— whole towns. It didn’t matter. My imagination exploded whenever I came across the empty, the broken-down or the grown over. To this day, vivid memories— like snapshots— live on in the back shelves of my brain: a … Continue reading The Fault Lines of Nostalgia
Next Time
The sky hangs low and gray. Raindrops sputter down— an intermittent mist. In Geneva, there is a one-way street in the middle of town. It is crisscrossed above by strings of bulbous lights, and as the gray sky descends toward brooding charcoal twilight, the bulbs flash on, merry and yellow. The street is lined by … Continue reading Next Time
Darned. Spring. Storm.
The daffodils shiver in agreement.