by Sara Etgen-Baker In the two days since my arrival, Granddad and I exchanged only a few predictable, cursory words. “Here’s your cereal; no milk, right?” “Right, Granddad. Thanks.” “You sleep okay?” Although his silent house had kept me awake, I respectfully replied, “Yes sir. I did,” followed by, “How ‘bout you?” “I’m old: I […]
by Ariela Zucker Nine o’clock at night and all is quiet. I doze in my hospital bed when suddenly the monitor I am hooked to with many leads starts flashing an angry red. Startled I look up at the heartbeat counter, it shows a big red 0. Before I manage to move, five people show […]
by Ariela Zucker ”The flash of a neon light That split the night And touched the sound of silence.” ~Simon and Garfunkel. It is Yom Kippur today, but when I wake up in the morning, the world is going about its regular activities. The hum of the cars on the street as noisy as every […]
by Sara Etgen-Baker Though landline phones may be on the endangered species list, in the 1950s and before, they were the lifeline of communities. For nearly 100 years, the landline was how we talked with someone who wasn’t in the room with us. We had only one telephone, a black rotary one, that sat […]
by V.J. Knutson “…he had always been popular and happy and things had always worked out.” (Holly LeCraw, The Swimming Pool) I close the book, feeling the rage shifting just below my sternum. It’s the second time this week that words have elicited this response. The first was an online post and the author had […]
by Sara Etgen-Baker Last Thursday my washer quit spinning, leaving in its wake a tub full of wet, heavy clothes. I grumbled and stared inside the washer, knowing I lacked the arm strength to wring out the excess water in each item of clothing. What I wouldn’t have given at that moment to have my […]
