That Paris Year by Joanna Biggar (Bethesda, Maryland : Alan Squire Publisher, 2010) is a novel that recounts the adventures of five southern California ‘Junior-Year-Abroad’ female college students (dare I say ‘co-eds’) in Paris during academic year 1962—1963 while...
The knock on his cabin door broke the mountain silence. He rose from his chair and answered. Four young women stood on the porch. “Our truck broke down,” the tallest one said. “Do you have a phone we could use?” He shook his head. “No phones up here.” “Oh.” The woman...
Berto’s earliest memory was not of a vision but a smell. It came from under the door of the room that he was forbidden to enter. He’d been playing a game with sticks and pebbles on the floor – war, against the Austrians – while his mother simultaneously nursed the...
“That boat’s awfully far out.” We were on the beach, playing one of our games (getting your fir cones into the opposing team’s basket). One of the other boys had stopped and stretched out a scrawny arm to indicate a spot somewhere near the horizon. Shielding our eyes...
I was eight when Perry Cole moved into Blacksburg. She was special ed. She was tall with string for hair, and no one even saw her. All the special ed kids were invisible, except when they weren’t and we’d snicker and watch our boys toss paper at them, make kissing...
The boy’s body hit the hood of the Toyota, slammed off the windshield, and then slid, falling out of sight from where Marie stood. She thought it might have been a performance, it happened so quickly, but there was no mistaking the terrible, high-whistle screeching of...
