The sound of a shattering windowpane punctured the stream of conversation; the Deans of the College turned toward the now-amplified sound of shouting in the streets.

A rock lay on the floor, surrounded by tiny, shining splinters, and wrapped with a piece of parchment and a fine pink satin ribbon.

The Chair of Fine Arts stooped over to pick it up. “ ( Read more... )

In a particular bustling, modern city, there is a green and verdant park, where, if you allow yourself to become very lost indeed, you may find that you feel more as if you are in a lush meadow of wildflowers blooming in a little-known valley, or in a dark and mysterious woods that hearkens back to tales of gnomes and elves and witches who eat ( Read more... )

There was a motel with twenty-six rooms, behind twenty-six doors all in a row. The manager’s name was Mr. Locke; he sat at the desk around the clock. In night, in day, in rain or sun, as if he never required sleep. He greeted guests with a smile and a key, until one fateful night, when the sign read:

Sleepy Time Motel

Air Conditioning

Pool -- Able ( Read more... )

Six days before I left for boarding school, Gran tried to make me leave Doggy Bear behind. She kept telling me that girls my age didn’t have stuffed animals and everyone would think I was a baby if I showed up with a raggy-eared dog-bear-thing. Eventually, I hid him at the bottom of my trunk and figured that if that was true, I’d hide him under ( Read more... )

The Ducal Council Chamber of Volterra was a sea of grave and stony faces ( Read more... )

It was our first night in the new house.

Well, new-old-house. Jared called it a "fixer-upper." I called it Thirteen-Thirteen Mockingbird Lane. It was big, drafty, and creaked with every step. The wallpaper was faded and torn; the ceiling corners were dusted with cobwebs. The basement was one of those cold, damp, dirt-floor cellars, and it ( Read more... )

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When I was a little girl, there was a game I used to play with my parents at Christmastime. We’d go through the toy section J.C. Penney Christmas catalog page by page, and each pick one thing on the page that we wanted Santa to bring us.


( Read more... )

There were once two towns, divided by a river. At first, Clocheçonne, on the west bank of the river, and Euphonheim, on the east bank of the river, lived in relative harmony ( Read more... )

New England, 1672.

( I only speak to the dead because they don't accuse me of witchcraft. )