This story is a fictional account of real events. “Today we enjoy the beauty of our Florida wading birds largely because of these men.” — reads the free standing historical marker, 26 degrees, 54.615 minutes north, by 82 degrees, 05.740 minutes west. + Can’t find any relations,the deputy says, standing on this side of the…

My grandfather, Conrad Espy, owned Espy Enterprises, which in its heyday was one of the most successful black-owned companies in the Carolinas, something unheard of at the time. His company owned grocery stores, restaurants, barbershops and rental properties, making his net worth greater than that of most of his white counterparts. Decades after his death,…

Moose lets her calf practice swimming in the wide river. He is a funny boy. He is older now and used to his legs, but in the water he resembles a cotton-wisp collapsing in rain. All of his hair slicks to his bones and his eyes become large bulbs. He scares the fish. + To…

The beehive hung from the roof of their motel room, and nobody could reach it without a ladder, and nobody was coming out until tomorrow. “The bees are sick,” the manager said, his cheeks shiny and red and his white face blown up like bubblegum, “it won’t be much longer till they die.” The bees…

In the kitchen, the girl’s parents told gruesome stories: children’s teeth lassoed to door knobs, pick-up trucks, and the tails of family dogs. The removal of baby teeth was an extreme sport. Cheese sounded kind in comparison, until the girl saw its blue-green crevices and sniffed an odor that also suggested crevices. “Won’t it just…

I wake under a spider’s web of wires to the sound of monitors—blip, blip, blipping. I look at a camera hanging from the ceiling and give a half-hearted wave. It must be the middle of the night. I hope it is, but before I can close my eyes again, I hear a knock at the…

Annalise was having dreams about picking flowers late at night, from the private gardens of residents who were likely too asleep to notice. She imagined them waking up the next morning, taking a headcount of their tiger lilies — those were most popular this time of year — and noticing that exactly eleven were missing.…

We are squatting on the outskirts in a house with black walls and a black hearth, where we eat and drink whatever we can get for free. For the real stuff Lover goes back into the city. He never comes home empty handed. Other people drift in and out, carried by waves of desperation and…

I’m at a cafe with my friend Lara, having a biscuit and coffee, and I’m telling her about it. “So here’s what happened. I rescue a little blue parakeet near the park coming home from work. I can tell it’s tame, the way it’s just looking around. And it’s too easy to touch. It lets…

An aquarium is just a container of containers. When we arrive at the Great Kelp Forest, I realize how wrong I am to bring you here. I have forgotten how tanks, occupied by slow-moving organisms, are womb-like. These galleries crowd with the noise of children. In an alcove, a pregnant woman sits on a bench.…

After dinner, talk turned to survival. Listen carefully, children, you said. There are forces at work in this world, melting polar ice caps, wicked hurricanes, hungry tornadoes guzzling cars, churches… even children. Dad! our parents said. Don’t scare them. You shooed our parents away. Could we cut off our own arm to save ourselves like…

At the age of eight, Martha May gave a class presentation about babies. What they smelled like. How they crawled around on stubby hands and knees. The food they ate out of jars. She made a poster with cut-out pictures of baby faces from her mother’s catalogues. Her classmates covered their ears when she played…