After months of rumors, Mayfair Mutual received word they’d been acquired. Disillusioned by long hours and disappointing commissions, new hires took the news in stride, blasting out resumes and hooking up with recruiters. Carrie Winters had been thinking of quitting and returning to catering. Older employees like Ted Matthews were downcast, facing
I remember what my grandmother has long forgotten. She was an integral part of my childhood, yet she doesn’t recognize my name. Details of her own upbringing she recalls perfectly—that she grew up on a cattle farm in Wyoming and used to fall asleep on the porch gazing at
As a girl growing up on a farm in Edson, Michigan, I knew about sex from an early age. With breeding animals around, it’s something you learn, something as common as wind bending wheat on a summer’s day. And still, I was naïve. I’d seen plenty of genitalia, even watched my...
One of my very first memories was of the back of our family’s couch, a worn corduroy with dull green buttons spaced along the front of each cushion, resting on a delicately carved set of claw feet. It held the same place in our family room, as steadfast and predictable as a statue, a few... Continue Reading →
By 6 pm, the Ramirez boys had already secured a record candy haul—much better than last year. And they had yet to walk the Turnberry subdivision, where the houses sported three-car garages and the rooflines rose to towering peaks. As he followed his parents onto Turnberry Lane, Lucas Ramirez, age eight and three-quarters, recurrently glanced... Continue Reading →
News: High School Shooting Claims Twelve 1. (at 24) We’re sitting on the steps in the dark watching the storm come and the wind gusts and the cool air touches my skin and it smells of water and the tree leaves on the big oak ripple like green waves and the undersides of the clouds flash... Continue Reading →
Linda’s first mistake was getting lost inside an IKEA. Her second was thinking she could run. The Swedish meatballs she had eaten hours before made her sluggish and easy to track through the aisles as the fluorescent lighting shone down like a searchlight. Her footsteps rang out on the cold laminate as she passed through... Continue Reading →
When the first truck hit Nevin’s dog, the howls echoed off the brick walls of First United Methodist Church. It was in March in the East End where snow piled on the corners higher than the first story of our house. The depth of ice on the lake measured in feet. Coal soot sat on... Continue Reading →
Because I dream of flying, I ask my father for wings. He believes only sons should fly above the earth. At first, I turn angry at this lack of value awarded to daughters. Don’t I deserve the same rights as my three brothers? When offered wings, my smartest brother refuses them. He says, “Had we... Continue Reading →
It’s usually a three-hour drive back home from Chapel Hill, but today it feels even longer. Bright rays of morning sun beam through my car door window, the heat warm on my face despite the cold November weather outside. I try to focus on the road, on the radio, on the billboards lining the highway.... Continue Reading →
