The cohort for the Clown School class of 2022 met in the lotus auditorium on a cool September afternoon in Los Angeles. The black curtain covered the stage, everyone waited for the president of The Clown School to make her grand appearance. Everyone except Jecinda expected the grand entrance, anyway. Read more…
Deep in the Florida preserve lived a Barn owl. On the periphery of the preserve, there lived a raccoon. One evening, late at night, the barn owl went down to the pond for a quick bath. She looked up and noticed something scurrying nearby. It was a raccoon. He was Read more…
On her 16th birthday, Abbey’s parents sat her down in the formal living room, a slate grey sofa and love seat combo, to hand over the keys to her first vehicle. “Life is full of choices, Abbey,” her father said. “And the choices you make will impact your entire life.” Read more…
Kimberly lives in a small town in South Carolina. On the day of her high school graduation, her car sits idling in the parking lot. “When I get out of this town, I’ll be happy,” She says. She kisses her mother goodbye and heads west to UC San Diego. She Read more…
Natalie grew up in the town of Concord, Massachusetts as an only child. She lived in a light blue colonial near the city park. Her father took the commuter rail to teach western civilization to Harvard undergrads. He had done his dissertation on modes of communication during the Roman Empire. Read more…
The year after Samantha left the military, she found herself in a one-bedroom apartment waiting for an email from a corporate recruiter. She was in the middle of a prestigious MBA program. Her boyfriend thought it was a stepping stone. Samantha thought it was a shortcut. “If I get into Read more…
Arica is a port town on the border of Peru and Chile. If the South American continent were a T-bone steak, you’d find Arica on the left, at the little corner where the filet meets the strip steak. Elias lives with his parents in a row house bleached white by Read more…
On his tenth birthday, Liam reached a milestone in his family’s chosen faith. That Sunday, he and the other 5th grade boys and girls sat in the pews at the front of the congregation and ascended to the pulpit, one by one, as the pastor called out their names. “Blessed Read more…
“Does the back of my hair really look like that?” Mandee looked on as Kye scrolled through the pictures on his phone. She joined him on his beach towel after an afternoon spent baking in the sun. He scrolled through images he had taken from the car of the dense Read more…
Nova traveled along a straight arrow highway in her four-door Honda Civic. Her book of CDs lay in the passenger seat. She had been on this road, the road to being her true self, since leaving her parents’ house for good. “Be careful where you stop, Nova. Be careful who Read more…