The child is dead.

It was cold. He was sitting on a low wall and it, too, was cold, and hard.

Dar sat in her room and waited for the waters to come.

When I first saw him, he sat across from me at a tea table far too small.

We never saw a moving truck.

He buries himself every night…

He hated to see himself growing old.

Walk-in Clinic, Crow Hills – March 1994

The first time I carried a pitchfork, the second a torch.

Nora begged the twins to stop.

We know you carry pain. Pain is what brings you to us.

“How can this work with our opposite schedules? You’re a night owl, I’m a morning person…”

I wasn’t always a member of my family, although I think that’s the case with everyone.

Gerta’s ramshackle dwelling carried a persistent smell of dried herbs, vinegar, and gruel…

The yellowing tile is cool beneath your feet.

There’s not always a place in any afterlife for a dead soul.

The rat. The legend. Even if you’ve never seen him, on some level you have.

I try my best to keep myself still before services begin, as the organ plays and people shuffle into their seats.

My tattoo parlor was called Electric Chair, which in hindsight seems appropriate.

Life can feel like shooting a vampire