Royals Primary has the second grade corralled into the gym. "What you want to do," I tell the kids, "is draw a mask that looks a lot like your face. As close as you can get it, except we're going to ... [+]
August brought with it a new easy-swallow scheme by a new self-improvement mentor. Luna Rojas had measured out her life with the likes of them – detoxes, spiritual awakenings, fad diets. She craved ... [+]
When she left, Anita took Mom's valise, the round one with the wooden handle from Eaton's department store. Mom was furious. She'd had it on hold at the store for weeks while she earned enough to pay ... [+]
in the stream behind your house we absconded with one, he pinched at my cupped palms as we bounded ... [+]
When you were two, we snapped this photo on the island. Back when your hair tickled your shoulders ... [+]
In the country of your birth, you learn to call redeemer, to call magician, to call the code HELP ... [+]
"Baa, baa, baaaaa" bleated Sally. "Life on the Renaud farm is blah, blah, blaaaah," she complained. "Nothing ever changes. Same sheep. Same hill. Same rocks... WHOOPS!" The stone beneath Sally's hoof ... [+]
I remember when my world divided into male and female, when the girls screamed "Shaun has cooties!" across the playground and flushed with what I thought was anger. I remember being in a closet with ... [+]
The name on the chart, Winnaker, tightened my throat. Funny how, decades later, a word can evoke a memory that evokes a physical response. It's a good thing the evil woman's name hadn't been Smith ... [+]
There's something in my closet. Its raspy monster breath makes my curtains flutter at night. I tell my mom, but she says it's just the sound of the wind whispering secrets to the moon. There's ... [+]
In the glow of this neon mountain, framing her face like a fluorescent halo from behind the bar, she ... [+]
When witches walk and goblins stalk and all the ghosts convene, then please draw near so you can hear new rhymes for Halloween! Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet eating her curds and whey, when ... [+]
To Zarja Wherever you go, I will follow through groves, where cypresses huddle like shy brown women ... [+]
I was sad, oh so sad, All alone in my pain. Thankfully that was when The Balloon Lady came. I had hung my head down And let out a groan, When I saw a foot standing Right next to my own. I looked ... [+]
Jake lay in the darkness, the sun creeping under the shade...thinking why should he get out of bed. He had no place to go, no one to see and nobody would be coming to visit. He probably wouldn't get ... [+]
It's hot today. I'm glad they built no tent though men will come just to watch women now. This ... [+]
All Julie did was toss a piece of bubble gum into her mouth, one day. Honey plum-plum flavor. Her favorite. And then... She blew ONE GUM BUBBLE. That's it. It may not sound like much. But ... [+]
My name is Andy Tannenbaum, and I'm a private eye. But until last week, I'd never solved a case—except for the time my little sister Tara thought someone had stolen her Batman underpants. I found ... [+]
After reading Howl's Moving Castle, Cecil enchanted our house. It walked in creaking, swaying steps, shifting barely two blocks in an afternoon, so when I woke to see a rocky coast outside my window ... [+]
Spark's fiery breath wasn't as hot as the other dragons'. No matter how hard he blew, he could never match the intensity of the other dragons' flames. While Spark's fire was just hot enough to start ... [+]
First thing every day, I count out the same colorful cocktail of medications into Mother's four containers: morning, midday, evening meal and nighttime. Two pink pills shortly after waking up, and ... [+]
