Just a girl who walks dogs and hangs out in cemeteries. Stay feral, y'all.
The little wooden stage in the middle of Maplewood Park had been empty for years. Once, it had hosted summer concerts, puppet shows and community theatre, but lately its paint was peeling, weeds grew between the boards, and most people walked past without giving it much thought. Except for twelve-year-old Sophie. Sophie loved theatre. She... Continue Reading →
The first thing Melinda noticed was the blue door. It shouldn't have been blue. She had lived across from Mrs. Bell's house for eleven years, and the front door had always been red. Not burgundy. Not faded crimson. Red. Mrs. Bell had once joked that she kept it that colour so she could find her... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
Lysa woke on Sunday morning without an alarm. For several seconds, she simply lay there beneath the blankets, listening to the quiet. No buzzing phone. No list of things demanding her attention. No reason to throw herself out of bed and immediately start being productive. Then her brain remembered the laundry. And the groceries. And... Continue Reading →
I’ve apparently reached the point in my life where sitting in my car and talking to my phone has become a perfectly normal part of the morning. I get into the driver’s seat, settle myself in, look at the camera and begin delivering a completely unsolicited State of the Union address to the internet. Except... Continue Reading →
