The sky left new treasure for Devon last night. She's up at dawn, running past Mum’s slumped form at the kitchen table. Her nose wrinkles; she turns away and calls old Toby to “Follow me, lazybones!” Out the back door, its springs thump right on Toby’s nose. “Oops! Sorry, boy.”She opens it for him, then … Continue reading Junk
It started with a pair of gumboots. My neighbour of ten years, Mrs McNally, planted bright red geraniums in each one, then got Mr McNally to nail them to their front fence. I watched him do it while I was mowing the lawn. They were bright and charming, those gumboots, with their scarlet polka dots. … Continue reading Mrs McNally’s Garden
The Sasquatch watches me from across the flooded forest, from between grim-dark tree trunks and spreading cypress limbs as dark as its fur. Its two eyes are unblinking and as golden as my firelight. A night egret calls. Wind ripples shallow waves over drowned roots. I hold my heart in my hand and offer it … Continue reading Caddo Lake
We toast in silence. It’s symbolic, the water—no whisky here. Once released, it will float in perfect spheres before our mouths can swallow. Such things made us laugh, in the beginning. But tonight the mood is somber.We gathered without premeditation, coming upon each other in the aft viewing alcove, squeezing in, no words required. A … Continue reading And Beyond
A year went by without Rupert mentioning anything, but that didn’t mean he stopped thinking about it. You saw the references in his every move. In his hobby, his obsession, most especially. “That’s the last of them, I think,” he’d said, laying golden roses on the kitchen table. You’d looked out the window to the … Continue reading Letting a Wild Thing Grow
EMMA LOUISE GILL 