Mid-Month

THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO—Re-Examined By Shep Lenchek   The high priests of the Aztecs were frantic. Their tribe had lived comfortably in what we now call the Valley of Mexico since 1325 and built a capital, Tenochtitlan, in Lake Texcoco. Because their myth of creation told that the sun had been still-born, moving only when […]

Family Life By Zofia Barisas   Had he lived today my father would have been in jail and my brother and I would have grown up in foster homes. It’s a scary thought. How can a mother stand by, wringing her hands, as the father beats their five-year-old son with a belt as if he

Knowledge Loves You, Love it Back By Margaret Ann Porter   Miss Renfield hands me a dictionary that is as heavy as a cinder block. She points to the gold lettering that is pressed into its leather as she sputters, “Look it up, Lisbeth, you lazy girl. I am not a living, breathing glossary serving

Miss Emily’s Pickles By Sally Assante   Before I became infected with the conformity bug, my mother made all of my school clothes. She created dresses, skirts, and blouses far superior to the cookie-cutter Villager brand shirts and A-line skirts the department stores carried, uniforms for schools that required none. The expansiveness of our Garden

When Did Water Become a Department? By Daria Hilton Word   Morrigan must have seen the phrase “water department” close to half of a million times in her ten years as a meter reader for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. She never thought much about it. Without provocation, the question bubbled up one night

Grandma’s  Bedroom By Sandra Olson   Grandma  lived in Winnemucca, Nevada, in an old frame house, with a screened front porch, a coal cellar and a shed in the back. The house sat on an unpaved road a few blocks from the railroad yard, beyond the Chinese cemetery up on the hill and across the

DEVIL MOUNTAIN The Life and Times of Jimmy Angel By Day Dobbert   Flying high over the steaming jungles of Venezuela’s still largely inaccessible Gran Sabana, one may, if weather conditions are favorable, glimpse one of planet earth’s most remarkable natural wonders, Salto Angel or Angel Falls. Shrouded in mist and cloud, the highest waterfall

House Of Ravens By Rachel McMillen   Emily Caruthers snipped the last thread from the loom, carried the finished piece over to the table and laid it out. It was good work. The edges were straight, the interlocking threads of warp and weft smooth and tight, the colors rich, the textures leading the eye as