Up from Baja by Lisa Ohlen Harris
In the orphanage courtyard, a teenage girl hung out laundry. I laughed with her when a pillowcase caught the breeze and slopped onto her face. Pausing between sheets, she raised her hand as a visor against the sun's glare and scanned the weaving mass of brown- and black-haired children jumping, tagging, and shrieking — exulting somehow in a freedom fed only by Mexican sunshine...Wages of Sin by Anne Bauer
In Fifth Grade, DeeDee and Suzanne and I had an on-again, off-again friendship, in the triangular way of young girls. We slept over at one another's houses, compared body hair, played Monopoly. Suzanne and I both lived on Sixth Avenue, she in the red-brick-jutting-out disaster apartments, and I half a block past there in an old stone house. DeeDee lived way down on Warren, but most often she'd come home with one of us. We passed Green's Mortuary on the way, scuffing the toes of our Buster Browns in the vain hope we'd get new shoes, and get to pick them out this time...Send Your Camel to Bed by Paul Alan Fahey
I list the words then define them on the blackboard, somehow managing to avoid the hole in the floor. The students laugh with pleasure when I fall into it. I review the new vocabulary with a wooden pointer: "sideshow, ring toss, cotton candy, roller coaster, and carnival." There isn't room to describe "Ferris wheel," so I squeeze in the words at the bottom...Spring Cleaning by Kristy Anne Chaboudy
Meditation brings out the perfection in both the person and the place. With this awareness, I apply meditation to cleaning my home. Beginning with the bed, I strip the sheets and imagine I am removing all traces of dreadful dreams haunting me. Making the bed with fresh linens, I create a blank canvas on which to paint new reveries. I move to the floor and begin to brush away all traces of negativity. My mind rests on one thought, my mantra: sweep... sweep...Nature Red in Tooth and Claw by Lori Ruediger
On a frost-brittle morning when I was newly six, Dad set out to butcher the latest batch of the rabbits he raised in hutches in our backyard. I had watched them grow from tiny naked pink morsels the size of walnuts into little hoppy balls of silky fluff, and now into nearly full-grown bunnies tugging eagerly at tufts of the sweet timothy hay I helped Dad feed them every day...7 Random Snapshots of My Life by Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz
1. I am a graduate student studying gerontology. For hands-on experience, I work in an adult residential facility. One morning, assisting a woman as she dresses, she stills me by placing her hand on my arm. "I just want you to know," she tells me, "that I think you're pretty, even if you are black..."Just a Little Gathering by Stephen D. Rogers
Sometimes, it's the little things that can keep you apart. You're not sure exactly what happened, or even when, but one day you realize the family has splintered with members going their separate ways...Super-Powered Passion by Vanessa Kincaid
When I was nineteen I walked into a 7/11 little knowing that I was about to discover passion. At that time convenience stores, as well as Wal-Marts and grocery stores, carried revolving racks of comic books. An interesting cover caught my eye and I stopped to look. The issue was "Justice League of America" and the story pitted the male superheroes against the female superheroes. I was always a sucker for battle of the sexes storylines, so on a whim I bought it along with the Coke I had initially stopped for. That single act sent me head first down the rabbit hole into a world of fantasy...Crash by Joy Elaine Gee
I broke all the rules that day. New bike, unfamiliar road, excessive speed, riding alone...you get the picture. The bike was a beauty, though. Teal blue and chrome with custom pipes and the tell-tale rumble of modified carburetion made her a Biker Mama's dream. Her 1200 cubic centimeter engine was a huge step up from my old, second-hand 750, and accounted for about 250 pounds more heft. I had the world between my legs and felt like I was ready for anything...