You Can Text Her Back Now
He said, “Ashley is my wife.” Not girlfriend, not roommate — wife, married in 2023 in Kentucky, on the lease because she has always been on the lease. Then he …
You Can Text Her Back Now Read MoreCall The Monument Company Monday
For maybe seven seconds, sitting at the end of that table, I heard my own mother’s voice telling me in a hospital bed that they’d fight over it and that …
Call The Monument Company Monday Read MoreDon’t Move That Chair
For maybe five seconds, standing on that grass with my husband’s hands up like a man refusing to hold something, I heard my own voice from twelve summers of hosting …
Don’t Move That Chair Read MoreRemember You Said That
For four or five seconds I heard my own daughter agree with him without saying anything — just the smile, the small one she gives when she’s decided not to …
Remember You Said That Read MoreWrite Down Today’s Date
For maybe five seconds, standing next to the copier with my plant under my arm, I heard my own name in the applause — somebody said it while they clapped, …
Write Down Today’s Date Read MoreKeep That Box
For about six seconds I heard my own son laugh at me in his grandmother’s kitchen, and he’s eleven, and he learned it in that room the way you learn …
Keep That Box Read MoreDon’t Lose Those
For eleven seconds I heard my own daughter laugh half a beat before she caught herself, and that’s the sound I still hear, not my brother’s. Then the transport truck …
Don’t Lose Those Read MoreHe Didn’t Take It — It Was Given
He found him in 2015. Nineteen years old, three months of searching, a nursing home outside Tulsa. He said the man was in a wheelchair and cried when my son …
He Didn’t Take It — It Was Given Read MoreWhat He’s Been Fixing Since 2019
In 2019 he refinanced the house. I signed what he put in front of me on a Tuesday night with the TV on, and I didn’t read it, and what …
What He’s Been Fixing Since 2019 Read MoreA Name I Say At Christmas
He said “Wes.” Our Wes — the one who carves the turkey, who taught my daughter to drive stick in the church lot, who my husband has always called his …
A Name I Say At Christmas Read More