Laura balanced on a stool beneath the skylight, the sun's warm pressure on her back. "Am I okay?" she asked her father. "You'll do." He winked at her over the easel.Downstairs, the front doo ... [+]
Lisa Beebe lives in Los Angeles, California, where she sometimes talks to the ocean. Find her online at lisabeebe.com. "Alight" is in Short Circuit #08, Short Édition's quarterly review.
We bought the land to build a house, even though we knew it would be years before we could afford to build anything. We thought of it as an investment in our future. The land gave us something to look forward to, something to believe in. We bought it to prove to ourselves that we were capable of making our dreams come true. We wanted a cabin in the mountains, a cozy little place just big enough for the two of us. Buying the land was the first step. Sometimes, when Pam had to work a double shift over the weekend, I drove out there and slung a hammock between two trees. I fell asleep breathing t