Smallara

“I just never thought Cindy would want to clean my cleats or work on my glove,” Krysi said.  She was not trying to be cruel.  That was part of what…

Krysi’s bed expanded out in all directions. Cindy stood on the soft baby blue blanket and felt the scale of it before she fully processed the room again. The blanket…

Cindy caught glimpses of Krysi’s home as Madison walked further inside.  Part of a wall here. A blur of framed photos there. A flash of flooring, a doorway, the edge…

The cold reached Cindy before the world did.  It came first as a thin blade through the tiny gap in the zipper, a narrow breath of winter slipping into the…

Madison came into her room with the force of the afternoon attached to her.  The bedroom door opened fast, and the hallway noise came in with her for half a…

Ava’s homework came in later, after Brooklyn’s, and with far less fanfare.  There was no video call.  No bright face filling the tablet.  No cheerful interruption, no casual claim, no…