Just a girl who walks dogs and hangs out in cemeteries. Stay feral, y'all.
I had one simple errand. That sentence should have been my first warning. All I needed to do was drive downtown, pick up a package, and come home. According to Google Maps, the entire trip would take twenty-seven minutes. According to reality, I apparently needed provisions, emergency flares, a lawyer, and the emotional resilience of... Continue Reading →
Every Sunday morning, Dawna baked bread. She wasn't particularly fancy about it. There were no complicated starters with names, no imported flour, and certainly no kitchen that looked like the ones on television. Her kitchen was small, one cupboard refused to close properly, and her oven had two settings: "probably not hot enough" and "surface... Continue Reading →
Everyone in the village knew not to follow music into the hills. Children were taught it before they were old enough to understand why. Never step inside a ring of mushrooms after sunset. Never eat food offered beneath a hawthorn tree. Never answer when someone calls your name from an empty field. And above all,... Continue Reading →
It started, as most bad decisions do, with confidence. “It’s a corn maze,” I said. “How hard can it be?” Those words should have immediately summoned a park employee to confiscate my admission bracelet and escort me back to the parking lot. Instead, I marched into the maze with three friends, absolutely convinced that generations... Continue Reading →
Julianna had a habit of saving her life for later. She would take the walk when she had more energy. She would call her friend when she was in a better mood. She would start reading again when she could concentrate. She would sit outside and enjoy the sunshine when there weren't dishes in the... Continue Reading →
I knew the day was going to be garbage when I woke up before my alarm. Not because I was refreshed. Not because my body had miraculously decided that 6:17am was a beautiful time to embrace life. No. I woke up because something cold and wet touched my foot. There are very few things you... Continue Reading →
By 7:14 Tuesday morning, Ilsa had already decided the day was defective. Her alarm hadn't gone off. She couldn't find her keys. She poured coffee into her travel mug and then promptly left the mug sitting on the kitchen counter. When she finally found her keys, they were in her jacket pocket—the jacket she was... Continue Reading →
Long before cheerful little men in red hats began appearing beside garden ponds and flower beds, European folklore imagined something considerably stranger living beneath the ground. They were small, secretive beings connected to the earth and the riches hidden inside it. They knew places human beings could not reach. They moved through stone, guarded underground... Continue Reading →
I decided to start a garden because apparently I looked at my already chaotic life and thought, You know what this needs? Several dozen tiny green dependents with very specific emotional needs. People online made gardening look peaceful. There were videos of women wandering barefoot through immaculate gardens at sunrise, gently gathering tomatoes into wicker... Continue Reading →
By Tuesday afternoon, Jenna could feel herself reaching that point. Not the dramatic, throw-the-laptop-out-the-window point, although the laptop was definitely testing its luck. It was the quieter kind of overwhelm. Her shoulders were practically touching her ears, her jaw hurt from clenching it, and she'd read the same email three times and still couldn't tell... Continue Reading →
