The familiar scent of earl gray tea sends me back to my grandma's living room. When I was in elementary school, I'd come over multiple times a week and we'd sit on her off-white couch drinking black ... [+]
Corrie Haldane has a number of online and print anthology publications. Most recently, her work can be found in the anthologies “What We Talk About When We Talk About It Vol. 2” and “Branching Out”. Corrie lives in Holland Landing, Ontario, Canada with her husband and an assortment of their mostly-grown children. She finds inspiration in nature, bubble baths, and carefully curated playlists. "Oceans Between Us" is in Short Circuit #12, Short Édition's quarterly review.
My daughters run across the hard-packed sand, their blonde hair—Maureen's hair—streaming out behind them. They are three little replicas of my wife. As always, the worry grips my heart with icy fingers: What else of hers do they carry? Every night, my girls sleep together in a huddle in my queen-sized bed. I sleep on the sofa in the living room, when I sleep at all. Their nightmares come less frequently now, but they still come. And when they do, the three of them take comfort in one another. Mostly, I'm thankful for that, but in my lowest, loneliest moments, I resent it. Just one more reason