As he drove, Dex instructed me on how to behave at the MacPherson’s. “Today you get to really understand your role in supporting our system,” he said. “You should look around, take it all in.” He had thoughts on what I should and should not touch, who I should speak to, where to find a …
The white popcorn ceiling looms eerily close, and there’s too much pastel. On the walls. The nightstands, the sheets. Andy Ramor grasps the wooden safety rail and leans over, peeking at an amorphous form in the bottom bunk. Justen Miller’s curly red hair splashes against his pillow, and his lips purse and release as he …
I was trapped in the car with my mother, who wouldn’t stop remarking on how beautiful everything was: beautiful trees, beautiful pond, beautiful sky, beautiful goldenrods growing wild along I-81. She was urgent and unrelenting as we exited the highway and navigated downtown Syracuse, where she swerved a bit, taking her eyes off the road …
who had never even been kissed, that was the idea, not really a costume that was intuitive and then Oren got tired of explaining it and decided to take his prosecco and sort of wander. He did think he looked pretty okay in the scrubs, they were not his size but maybe they were supposed …
She was at the grocery store in Morgantown when it happened—like shock from electric wire, or a suddenly caved-in roof. She’d been down every aisle with a near-empty cart, looking for the kind of beans with black in the middle (the kind Leonard would eat without his complaining; without pushing off his plate buttered limas …
It’s the first Wednesday in August and Alix has been waiting in line for an hour, standing on the street in Hell’s Kitchen, wearing jean cutoffs and flip flops. Her grandmother, Harriet, hated flip-flops, which she referred to as thongs. How can you wear those? I worry someone is going to stamp on your feet, …
I am incredibly proud to feature the winner of our 2nd annual Story Foundation Prize, Karl Taro Greenfield, who’s remarkable story “Womanly Words” opens our summer issue. Set in imperial Japan, the young protagonist is the fifth and youngest son, and in a time of growing nationalism, he struggles with issues of masculinity, strength, and …
At the plant where Miles works, there was once a new foreman, ex-military. Presiding over his first crew meeting, he paced the floor with hands folded behind his back and dictated how things would be on his watch: “You will not wear street clothes to clock in and out. You will not exceed the time …
When I spin the globe of my youth, this is where my finger lands, always here, in a snowy desert. I was in Arizona. It was January and I was traveling around with a backpack that I had taken from my brother. I was sure he’d want it back someday, so I felt like a …
The chair is light blue but shades toward gray in the sun. China blue but more somber, more delicate. It’s an Adirondack chair, which are common in New England, but when she first saw it, she found it unique, unusual, a splendid wedding gift. They married right after she graduated. She was twenty-two and Morty …