Educated

to stand next to her and watch, so I could say, “You already added the lobelia. Next is the blue vervain.” Mother began to doubt ...

answer.” Mother would say to herself, aloud, “I have a migraine. What will make it better?” Then she would pick up a bottle of o ...

before the accident, when Mother had first heard of muscle testing and energy work, she’d dismissed both as wishful thinking. “P ...

radiator or throwing the five hundredth chunk of steel into the bin, I’d find myself imagining the classrooms where Tyler was sp ...

which makes me wonder if she did know where Richard was. If I couldn’t get back down to turn on the light, Richard would pull th ...

The memory of Tyler had faded, and with it had faded his music, drowned out by the crack of metal crashing into metal. Those wer ...

The groaning stopped when the bin was level with the trailer. Dad was giving me time to climb onto the trailer wall but I was pi ...

sight. Dad slipped out of his flannel shirt and pressed it to my leg. “Go on home,” he said. “Mother will stop the bleeding.” I ...

He returned to his reading, and I left quietly. I did not need any explanation; I knew what the story meant. It meant that I was ...

7 The Lord Will Provide It was a rainless summer. The sun blazed across the sky each afternoon, scorching the mountain with its ...

By noon, they had drained somewhere between thirty and forty cars. Luke had collected the fuel in five-gallon buckets, which he ...

no question it was human. I’d never heard an animal bellow like that, with such fluctuations in tone and pitch. I ran outside an ...

He ignored me and continued crawling toward the bin. He had a cold look in his eye that said nothing mattered except the fire bu ...

and crossed her fingers, then asked aloud whether the wound was infected. Click click click. “You were lucky this time, Tara,” s ...

Mother knelt on the floor beside me, pressing my plastered hand the way she pressed Luke’s, dabbing my forehead, praying. Luke d ...

I decide to ask Richard. He’s older than I, and has a sharper memory. Besides, last I heard, Luke no longer has a telephone. I c ...

I try to imagine the moment of decision. Dad looks at the weeds, which are burning fast, thirsty for flame in that quivering hea ...

8 Tiny Harlots I wanted to get away from the junkyard and there was only one way to do that, which was the way Audrey had done i ...

A mile down the road, a man named Randy ran a business out of his home, selling cashews, almonds and macadamias. He stopped by t ...

“I can’t,” I said. “Oh.” She looked uncomfortable. “Maybe one of the girls can lend you one.” She’d misunderstood. She thought I ...