At nine years old, he was Duke for a day. “Where are you going, Mikey?” A note of alarm wormed into Mom’s voice. Three weeks since moving to their new home, he had not ventured out. “I’m Duke now. Goin’a play.” The conk of wooden bats falling hard on the asphalt, the...
Hope Miller did not believe in G-d. But that did not stop her from calling out to him every once in a while. For example, when Hope found the extra hand behind the bar, she seemed more annoyed than surprised. “Gee. Suss. Christ.” She spit out each...
I was not the only girl hobo, I met quite a few. I learned to jump a freight and never had so much fun in my life. I’d hold the grip iron and stand at the open door of a boxcar so I could feel the wind blowing back my hair, which I no longer wore in pigtails, but had...
The iniquities of the father are visited on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate g-d, our minister said. In the buckboard Aunt Em explained what iniquity meant, and I felt so proud to learn such an impressive word, for I was still small,...
Pecos dreads the night when his son asks about conditional sentences. The “if”s and “then”s. If Marley doesn’t finish his homework, then he will go to detention. If Marley sneaks chips before dinner, then he doesn’t get Tambo Tambong for dessert. But Marley doesn’t...
