My dogs turn in smug unison when the door clicks shut on the guy they can’t stand. The collie lifts his chin like he just won a courtroom case; the golden narrows her eyes with the glow of someone who escaped a family Zoom call. “Don’t gloat.” I nudge the collie’s rump with my foot, […]

Three months after Kara’s last text—I found the answer—I parked at the Summit Creek trailhead. I’d torn through her left-behinds for a clue—found only a Post-it written on the run: Summit > South Spur > Ridge. I killed the engine. The trail, a half-swallowed scar, pulled me in. Devil’s club towered sky-high. Bear scat gleamed. […]

I didn’t get the house. Not the Lexus, the lake lot, the gilded dental practice or the damn espresso machine I bought him the year he started molar sculpting. I got a one-room cabin. Ninety miles south of Anchorage. No plumbing. A stove that belches smoke. A roof that drips snowmelt onto my bed. Daniel […]

I hadn’t returned to the cabin—not since the bear. Now, alder branches clawed at my sleeves as I climbed the ridge, snagging like they meant to stop me. The wind rattled through spruce needles, brittle with rime. Snow fell in hard, wind-blown flurries that needled my neck. The brush closed behind me, a trapdoor slamming […]

I catch the flinch in your eyes.Do you think I chose to live like this?I once owned a bed, a sofa, and a kitchen table.Hope sat beside me in the mornings, warm in the steam of my coffee.My hands held dreams.My hands cradled children.Then, the ground crumbled under me. If you see a woman huddled […]