Ma’am, That’s Not Her
The name in the ledger was my grandmother’s sister. Died November 1971, aged forty-four. I have never heard of her. My mother has never heard of her. There is no …
Ma’am, That’s Not Her Read MoreAuthor: john.mitchell
It Wasn’t the Coffee
She said: Nobody. I’m the woman he pulled out of the car. The clipping was from a paper in Indiana in 1998 — a wreck on a county road, a …
It Wasn’t the Coffee Read MoreForty-One Letters, None Mailed
I said her name and asked if she’d known a man in Fresno in 1983, and there was a silence long enough that I started apologizing, and then she said, …
Forty-One Letters, None Mailed Read MoreWas It Always the Yellow One
Letters. Not from her — to her. Two hundred and something, in his handwriting, addressed and stamped and never mailed, one every few weeks from November 1996 forward. The stamps …
Was It Always the Yellow One Read MoreJust Wednesdays, Please
He said, Mom. My son. Forty-one years old, who has been in Colorado since 2019 according to every phone call I’ve had with him, and who has apparently been living …
Just Wednesdays, Please Read MoreThe One Who Noticed
It said: You asked me twice if I was okay and I said yes both times and I want you to know I was lying, and that I’m glad somebody …
The One Who Noticed Read MoreEight Words on a Napkin
The napkin says: Tell the girl at the desk I’m sorry. I read that for twenty-one years as a dying man’s confusion. There was no girl at the desk on …
Eight Words on a Napkin Read MoreIt Wasn’t Seniority
He’d gone to the plant manager in March of ’03 and offered his own name in place of mine. My wife was seven months along with our second and everybody …
It Wasn’t Seniority Read MoreSixty Years and Nobody Opened It
A marriage certificate from Pusan, February 1952, with his name on it and a woman’s name I have never heard spoken in my life. Underneath that, a second document in …
Sixty Years and Nobody Opened It Read MoreSeven Words
She put the folder down and didn’t open it, and I told her before she could ask. He wasn’t working in Erie that year. He was in a facility outside …
Seven Words Read More