1076 6 3
|
On the phone I asked my mother how she was doing.
“I’m getting old,” she said. “Going slow. But getting there. I’m ninety-four!”
My mother was always 94, when she was really 93. I remember she was 93 right after she turned 92. And 92
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3463
|
After Alice scraped the decorative border from the nursery walls, she placed an ad in the university housing office. Summer break had just started, but within days someone called. Rune was her name. “Like the fortune-telling alphabet,” the girl said.
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136331
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Dark hung over the night like an occupation force. Across the street a Cuban diner fought it off with green and yellow neon lights, Latin rhythm beating through the air.
|
400
|
Earlier, after settling into the guest room, her mother had unpacked the ice packs matter-of-factly, tsking at those that had melted completely, as if carting a carcass from Newark to Los Angeles should have been trouble-free.
|
200
|
I wasn't due for another month when my water broke. Neal and I lay there naked and shocked in a puddle of amniotic fluid.
|
3423
|
Earlier, after settling into the guest room, her mother had unpacked the ice packs matter-of-factly, tsking at the ones that had melted completely. As if carting a carcass from Newark to Los Angeles should have been trouble-free.
|
175144
|
Obsessed she swallows, inhales, main-lines police procedurals. When she's in the zone she thinks: Big Gulps, frenzied post-pot potato chip inhalations, all-night squiggles of mirrored coke and rolled bills, chemo through a central vein ...
|
3333
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I wasn't due for another month when my water broke. Neal and I lay there naked and shocked in a puddle of amniotic fluid.
|
105710
|
Another noise, softer than the first: swish, thud. You are still. The house is very loud tonight.
|
116321
|
Everything seems still, but it's not.
|
3521
|
I stand near the old pier, looking out over Lake Wendouree. There has been enough rain to make a difference - the lake is filling slowly and soon it will cover Edith Delaney’s secret forever or for at least another lifetime.
|
20060
|
When the baby's head crowned, Nell let out a scream, arched her back, and started to hyperventilate. With her eyes nearly popping from her head, she finally gained control of her breathing.
|
19222
|
I didn’t answer right away. I didn’t know how to answer. Maybe I should say that my boyfriend left a toothbrush at my house, and that has recently elevated the level of our relationship. But I wasn’t quite sure what to call him. I had been living li
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1694016
|
It’s a Wednesday night and she’s driving to a motel in the deep valley, a place she’s never gone, though she’s always loved the connotation that deep valley brings up in her head.
|
143020
|
Old man Hensley was fed up. With everything, he would say, if one was so inclined to ask (which was not advisable). It was his first morning as an official retiree and, if it was…
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