Life Stories

We counted them. Twenty-eight. Most of them had arrived during Mom’s last hospital stay. They’d been sitting in the hallway for days. A few had little slips…

So there I was, crouched in the hallway, holding her strawberry keychain, tearing the tape off the nearest box. It was medium-sized. Plain brown cardboard. I used…

Let me back up. My name is Claire. I’m thirty-four. My brother Ben is thirty-eight. Our dad left when I was three and Ben was seven, and…

There were packages everywhere. Boxes stacked against the wall outside her door. Shopping bags crowding the welcome mat. Smaller padded mailers wedged in the gaps between them,…

Part Five: 2:18 I was on my lunch break in the dispatch center’s break room, eating a turkey sandwich at the little table by the vending machines,…

Part Three: The Fair For the past two weeks, all Morgan talked about was the fall fair at Whitman Elementary. It was an annual thing, held on…

Part Two: How We Met I’m Khloe Reyes. I’m thirty-nine years old, and I work as a 911 dispatcher for Pierce County. Four ten-hour shifts a week,…

Morgan was eleven, and for six years it had been just the two of us. We lived in a two-bedroom apartment on the second floor of an…

  Natalie pushed back her chair. “Okay, Dad,” she said. That was all. Okay, Dad. Ben nodded. He looked satisfied. “Good,” he said. “Glad we understand each…