The Medal Letter
David Mercer sat on the second stool at my workbench with his hands folded and did not touch the envelope. He said it was not his to open. It was …
The Medal Letter Read MoreBlog
Mister Gray
I went to see my father on a Tuesday in March, alone, at the retirement house for priests outside Hartford where he had lived quietly since 2009. He was eighty …
Mister Gray Read MoreThe Wedding Ring Quilt
I made Mrs. Ida Burkhart sit down at my kitchen table in Paducah and drink a cup of coffee before I would let her say another word. She had driven …
The Wedding Ring Quilt Read MoreThe Plow Logbook
Kristin Haugen sat beside the bed of her mother in the hospice room at Bemidji with the window open to the pine trees, and she told me she had carried …
The Plow Logbook Read MoreThe Hollow Topper
The state trooper turned the little porcelain bride over in his gloved hands and said, “Missus Kauffman, I need to ask you one question, and I need you to think …
The Hollow Topper Read MoreLane Nine Wednesday
I closed the cigar box and set it on the counter of the Starlite between Marge Kaminski and me. Inside, wrapped in a handkerchief of my father, was the score …
Lane Nine Wednesday Read MoreThe Bluebird Crib
The deputy set the pried open headboard on the kitchen table and I looked at the hollow space inside it, the same hollow space I had cut with my own …
The Bluebird Crib Read MoreThe Gray Uniform
I did not sleep that night. At seven in the morning I sat in my car outside the bank on Lafayette Avenue with the folder on my knees and read …
The Gray Uniform Read MoreThe Parrot Witness
I took Pickles to the office of the sheriff in Hendersonville on the fifth day, wrapped in a quilt in his travel cage, and the deputy at the desk looked …
The Parrot Witness Read MoreA Letter for Dr. Patel
The man in the gray suit set a single sheet of paper on the Thanksgiving tablecloth, between the cranberry sauce and the brochure of Sunrise Gardens, and slid it toward …
A Letter for Dr. Patel Read More