He is fifteen now. He is fifteen now, and I am upping the ante. For your birthday present, I grin, I will be teaching you to do your own laundry. He snorts: Some birthday present. But I am not joking. Oh, sure, I’ll wait a few weeks, but this teen will be washing, drying, and […]

I start to pull in to one of the bays at Valvoline as I check my watch. It’s all about time these days. There’s never enough. I calculate. Will I be able to have the oil changed before my kids get home from school? I decide that yes, I will, although it will be tight, […]

In the beginning there was a leaf, red, orange, or yellow. Or perhaps it was red, orange, and yellow. Why not? And the leaf fluttered across one pane of the brilliant September sky. In this roundabout way it descended. Doing its dreamy dance it reached a patch of grass. When it arrived and settled on […]

“Darling, I don’t want to worry you,” she said. Could one inspire any more worry than by uttering a sentence like that? I let my fingers drift idly over my belly, my cantaloupe belly, firm and round with Ten. I was seven months pregnant. The woman who’d be a first-time grandmother in just a few […]

I am a little girl, and I am in Jamaica on a vacation with my family. The Caribbean is even warmer than I had imagined it to be. Accustomed to the bone-chilling Atlantic, I am suspicious of the balminess of these waters. I edge my way forward, away from the shallows. With each step I […]

I arrive on time for my appointment. The receptionist takes my name, verifies my insurance, and waves me on to the second waiting room. I turn back, confused. “The second waiting room? Are you sure?,” I ask. She nods. “Dr. Morris is working out of the OB side today,” she explains. I thank her and […]