She fell asleep without even realizing she was gone. It was always that way, things of critical importance slipping past her. Instead, she noticed the details–the lyrics to the song on the stereo, the sound of the car door locks sliding into place, the way he touched her upper arm to see if she was cold.
Vertical intensity
April 26, 2008The blonde girl sobbed, red-faced. “My feet hurt so much,” she wailed.
The parents had miscalculated, not recognized from the short line on the trail map the vertical intensity ahead, and now they had a small daughter who could not take another step.
Their older daughter, sturdier and independent, leaned close. “It’s OK,” the older sister said. “You will be OK. You and your pretty face.”
Run on anything
April 24, 2008At two outs, run on anything.
She knew the rule better than anyone else on the team, reminded others of it, in fact. But, when the bat cracked ball, she could not, for the life of her, move her feet toward home.
Limbs
April 22, 2008There are so many limbs in this world, she thought as she walked out on another one.
Left behind
April 20, 2008This was not the first tree she had gone away from, not the last one she would abandon for a new path. It will be the one thing I’ll miss, she thought, her hand on the bark, the blue sky and pink flowers above her. This is the rub of moving: the things left behind are often as important as the things packed and carried.
Shaken loose
April 18, 2008I took the bed gliding back and forth as a sign. This was no tornado, spinning everything scattered. This was no sharp, stiffening blizzard.
Iowa, not usually earthquake country, trembled beneath me, shook me loose.
On a day of that caliber
April 16, 2008On a day of that caliber, she could not help but take flight. The people below her looked up, blankly, and all their shirts became a muddy grey-blue, as if the cloudy sky were below her, wrapping them up. She stopped looking at them, remembering what her father said: Point yourself in the direction you want to go. From where she soared, the horizon looked so very attainable, so she aimed herself that way, and flew.
100 Proof 