Horror and Wholesome
It wasn’t a surprise when Kaylyn started handing out invitations to her Halloween party before homeroom. What was a surprise was that I received one. I stared at the orange envelope she was holding out toward me and then up at her. “For me?” I asked uncertainly. Kaylyn and I had never been friends. Acquaintances,... Continue Reading →
Nursing is hard work for too little pay. You never feel it more keenly than when you’re getting off a double shift in the middle of the night. All the smells cling to the inside of your nose, you’re convinced you didn’t scrub your hands well enough to really wash off that last hour, and... Continue Reading →
“Be a good one.” It was what my grandfather said to me when I told him I wanted to be a cop. I promised him I would. I’d been nervous, standing in front of him and the rest of my family and saying it out loud. They were all college educated and white collared. I... Continue Reading →
It was winter when they started going missing. The kids from Dunburry. An eight year old boy was first. A tragedy, to be sure, but the last time anyone saw him, he’d been heading out toward the lake. Most suspected he’d wandered on to a weak spot and gone through. The town would have to... Continue Reading →
It was a vacation of firsts. My first time on a plane, my first time out of the US (yes, Canada still counts!), my first time taking a ferry. My husband kept insisting it wasn’t a big deal, that we were just visiting his parents, but I might as well have found the wardrobe to... Continue Reading →
Calum gave me the Alexa. He thought it was a sweet surprise. I thought of it as another “smart” device to listen in on conversations. I had barely gotten used to using an iPhone, already three generations old by the time I’d gotten it, to help keep our long distance relationship running smoothly. I had... Continue Reading →
I was twenty when I signed up to volunteer with the Long River Fire Company. My dad had been a volunteer fireman with them for well over a decade by then and I took a lot of pride in wearing my gear beside him. He took a lot of pride in getting to fires before... Continue Reading →
I wouldn't say I didn't have a career choice growing up, more that I just was barely aware there were many other options. Dad was a logger. Grandpa was a logger. And his father, and his father, et cetera, et cetera. I was pretty much born with flannel on my back and an axe in... Continue Reading →
Every night for a week, I woke to a gunshot. Just one, across the house, followed by a loud, ringing silence. And then the footsteps. They shuffled slowly up to my door. The knob would rattle softly a few times, but it was locked. I laid in bed, my covers pulled up to my nose,... Continue Reading →
Stories By S.H. Cooper 