“I want to ask you for the bay,” I said. “One more Saturday.” He looked at me. “For what?” “A chili supper,” I said. “Another one. I’ll…

Our insurance has a seven-thousand-dollar out-of-pocket limit. That’s the family maximum. Through the feedlot’s group plan. After you hit seven thousand dollars in deductibles and copays, they…

Josh drove back and forth every night so he wouldn’t lose his job at the feedlot. Two hours each way. Elk Bend to Wichita. He’d work his…

Biscuit is a yellow lab mix. Seven years old. We got her from the shelter in Emporia the year Bryce was two. She sleeps at the foot…

The Dog Bryce was nine when the grass fire caught him in March. It was a Tuesday. The fourteenth. Burning season in the Flint Hills of Kansas,…

I drove to Sheldon’s house that evening at six-fifty-five. The car squeaked every time I turned left. There were eleven left turns between Frank’s house and Sheldon’s….

Then, one Friday afternoon in May, Sheldon called me into his office. It was almost five. I was sweeping. He leaned out of his office door and…

My mom, Denise, was raising my younger sister, Janelle, by herself. My dad left when I was eleven and Janelle was four. He moved to Texas with…

“My dad didn’t choose you by accident. And it wasn’t for my sake.” I stared at Georgia. We were sitting in my uncle Frank’s car in the…