We really didn't think anything unusual was happening that Halloween until we say jack-o'-lanterns taking to the air and flying off. That's what it looked like at first, you know, since we could actually see the jack-o'-lanterns because of the light inside. Except for the electric ones, of course--those got the cord pulled out of them first and ( Read more... )

Wake me up when September ends, dear," she said, and then my mother rolled over and fell asleep amid a drift of comforters and overstuffed pillows. A single red-orange leaf lay beside her pillow, like an alarm clock promising to wake her up when her season came around again. As it happens, this had been one of the better summers that I could ( Read more... )

I can't take it any more. 5 to 4, standing, watching winter getting closer and closer. Every twelve hours, going out and measuring the frost line. Bundling up in anoraks and furs and goggles, stumbling out into summer and roasting, continuing to walk until I reach winter's edge. I've already sent back that we're going to need to move the cabin ( Read more... )

"Snowshoe through fairytale woods," the brochure said. It sounded delightful. Fairytales are good, right? So my wife and I booked our vacation in the Icelandic resort, packed the kids off to the grandparents, and headed out the door with dreams of open, vast expanses of snow, toasty fires, and overstuffed feather comforters waiting for us at the ( Read more... )

Hearts in a bowl. Tiny, delicate, pink-and-white hearts, perfect in every anatomical detail, but looking so pastel and sugar-coated that she was tempted to reach out and take a bite. She knew they would be delicious, would explode in her mouth in a burst of sugary deliciousness and a rainbow of good feeling. They would be so good that she wouldn't ( Read more... )

It was important to leave the hut, to walk over snow that crunched under her reindeer-hide boots, to move among the herd, to breath air so cold it cut her lungs like a knife. It was important to squint at the winter sun and the dazzle of whiteness over the land. These things were all important, all necessary if she wished to remain connected and ( Read more... )

He said the dead would come back to us on Easter morning, and lots of people stocked their pantries and armed themselves for a zombie apocalypse, but it wasn't like that at all. Like I said, a lot of people prepared for a catastrophe. A lot of other people mocked the prophecy--or, like me, didn't even bother to mock it, just wrote it off as another ( Read more... )

It just didn't feel like a holiday until the saints heads were hauled out and rested on their ceremonial spears. The ones with a little dried flesh still attached got dusted; the ones that were only bone got polished. Some extra padding was required to keep the skulls in place, of course, but a little of the green sponge kept for flower-arranging ( Read more... )

The spring melt was so lovely that at first she didn't notice the snow. Almost all the snow was gone from the ground, the sun was shining, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Crocuses stuck their heads out of the ground quizzically. Buds formed on tree limbs. Robins hopped around murdering worms. In general, a gorgeous, perfectly normal spring ( Read more... )

She tensed when she heard voices coming down the trail. He laughed. "What, you think they're coming here looking for you? You've been missing two months. Everybody's given up on finding you until Spring thaw. No, this is a school group that comes down every winter to study hibernation patterns. Buncha college kids. You--" he patted her thigh ( Read more... )