Shame is a fire, burning my core.
Category: Uncategorized
Theodosia, Indignant to the Bone
Theodosia has been indignant all her life, mostly because she’s named Theodosia. “Why couldn’t I have been named Cynthia Jane?” she asks me. “That was Grandma’s name… Read more “Theodosia, Indignant to the Bone”
Big Pete, 1889-1929
“His death broke the cold snap.”
Frank Wallace, AKA “Stubby”
He was lucky the doctors had been able to save his arm. He was lucky to be alive.
Excerpt from Silver Bottle, a memory from Lorraine.
Lorraine’s childhood is marred by the alcoholism of her mother. However, she does have a few happy memories, and the sound of popping soap bubbles is one… Read more “Excerpt from Silver Bottle, a memory from Lorraine.”
Carmen Amber’s Turn
A slyly sensual sound at a time when sex wasn’t talked about, except by married women on front porches in the summer twilight, or wildly exaggerated by teenage girls, also in whispers but with a throatiness, a raw edge which might cause the speaker to break off, red-faced, while the rest of us looked at our feet.
I Know You’re Irish!
I told Scott the name of his biological father. Bombs might explode, but I thought he had a right to know.
“Return to Sender” Excerpt from Silver Bottle
My mom might be nuts, but she’s still my mom. Someday, she’ll be embarrassed about all of this.
Lizzie Speaks, excerpt Silver Bottle
I felt something inside me I’d never felt before, and I let out a scream that climbed Devil’s Backbone, then dropped to the hollers where it stilled the deer. It felt like someone had taken out my heart, torn it in half, and put it back in.
Rondo
(excerpt from “Silver Bottle”) Death was in a hurry and dressed in in the wrong clothes and Lizzie, in defiant anger, pounds her heels against the… Read more “Rondo”
