Fiction

[audio:http://shenandoahliterary.org/612/files/2011/08/Real-Cowboy-Sappenfield.mp3|titles=Real Cowboy] He’s a muscular angle against the barn door’s frame. His back and one leg are straight. His other leg is bent, bootheel pressed against wood. Though his eyes are in a wedge of shade beneath his hat, he … Continue reading →

Ray leans over Rebecca’s shoulder and crosses her right leg over her left. There is the familiar clunk as her pump clatters to the floor. “Oh, Rebecca,” he says, and replaces the red heel on her slender foot, then pushes … Continue reading →

Riddle Me This It was comforting to sit in the car in front of Mike and Sally’s house at sunrise and watch the dark shapes around me name themselves houses and pines.  Their unpaved street looked familiar, and I tried … Continue reading →

In the fall of her senior year, on a Texas afternoon quickly losing its light, JoAnn Parish stepped into her spot on the stage of the Needmore High School auditorium and listened intently for her next line cue. This was … Continue reading →

Not so long ago, on the banks of the Mississippi, Charlotte Avery Cole felt a sudden convulsiveness in her breast.  She was terrified.   When she doubled over and began to gag, witnesses thought she might be close to death.   The … Continue reading →

Somebody put the baby in Medora’s lap, and a crowd of people gathered at her elbows, as if she might forget – after six babies, nineteen grandchildren, and a horde of great-grandchildren – as if she might forget how to … Continue reading →

Dr. McCoy’s examining rooms have been musty since the forties, when he opened his little office on the Mt. Hebron square. Not long after Daddy died, which was just last month, I showed up in one of them. I ticked … Continue reading →