Last Line Stories

Part 1: The Broken Trellis Arthur stood leaning heavily on his aluminum cane, his knuckles white, staring at the shattered wood scattered across his front lawn. The white cedar trellis …

Part 1: The Confession My hand hovered over the silent alarm beneath the front desk. It was ten minutes to closing, the snow was blinding outside, and I was entirely …

Part 1: The Cake The cake hit the pavement upside down. For a few seconds, Shannon Avery just stood there staring at the clear plastic lid cracked against the asphalt, …

Part 1: The Party “It smells like gasoline and dead fish.” My seventeen-year-old grandson, Easton, said it loudly enough for everyone at his graduation party to hear. A few relatives …

Part 1: The Crying I knew my neighbor wasn’t coming back when her cat spent two nights crying outside her door like the waiting might kill him. I live in …

Part 1: The Old Cat I’d had that old cat less than one night when the shelter called and asked, very quietly, if I would read a letter. I adopted …

Part 1: The Birthday I placed the birthday cake on the kitchen counter, folded my apron beside it, and handed my son the spare key to his house. “What’s this?” …

Part 1: The Gate For the first time in eleven years, Megan Holloway woke up to silence that belonged to her. No coughing furnace in her aunt’s basement. No cousins …

  Part One: The Promise I Kept My name is Dahlia Voss, and for eight years, I sent my parents two thousand dollars every month without telling a single person …