July 2026

The Red M Jani stood on a flagstone facing the pond looking into the water. She thought about how often she had wronged a right, how easily she had justified it. She thought about Maria, about the ‘M’ she told Francisco to paint on her shell in red fingernail polish. She felt worse about doing […]

The Devil was as much a part of the García family as the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus; the only person who had never sinned. My teacher, Sister Margaret, told my second-grade class that if you committed a really big sin and were too afraid to ask God for forgiveness, you could pray to

I met a new man yesterday. White hair. Plenty of wrinkles. Big smile. I was smiling back. Coquetting all the way. I went home and looked him up on Facebook, as you do. He is twenty-six years younger than I. Twenty-six years!! I froze. How could I have missed that age difference? How could I

So… Do Chicharras Really Call the Rain? The first time I heard a chicharra, I thought a transformer was about to blow: Chica, chica, chica, chica, chica —whireeeeeeeh, whireeeeeeeh. The sound was mechanical, very loud and, for me, terrifying. I ran outside and asked my neighbors, the resident street mechanics, “Did you hear that?!” They