In a large brick box, tiny figurines stand still in what looks to be a family setting. We have a kitchen: miniscule butcher knife, thumb-sized boxes of cereal, and even a fridge that opens and closes.
There was no money. Not a dime to be found in any drawer, nothing overlooked in a coat pocket, no coins stuck in the corner of an old purse, not a hint of copper hiding under a couch cushion…
My mother makes no sound when the needle tip enters her skin. I expect her to cry, as I do, each time my pediatrician approaches me with a needle.
I received my Italian heritage through food – through a sauce that is thick, greasy, salty, and orange-colored. Put together so that no one flavor predominates.
I had forgotten how warm the water is straight out of the faucet in Key West. Open the cold tap, and you’ll get water warm enough to bathe in.
Auggie was passed out drunk when I first met Elizabeth. It was three in the afternoon on a summer Friday, only ninety minutes before the court closed for the weekend.
The sky is low; the September sun is tender; and the bright orange of life guards’ swimsuits and umbrellas has been replaced by the green of fully clothed Parks and Recreation officers.
I am ten months from being thirteen, and have yet to hit puberty in mid-80’s America…. There’s a smallish blue-black bruise just below my right eye.
On December 16, 2012, a young physiotherapy student and her friend, who happens to be a boy, board a bus after watching The Life of Pi in a multiplex in New Delhi.
People approach me on the street. They ask me if I need help. Sometimes they help without asking, and sometimes they just ask questions.
