“I’d hear this man’s footsteps above me when in bed, trying to trap the sound of his feet with my eyes…”

“…I can see it’s a black, shrunken stick about ten feet high, stripped of the bark I once ran my fingers over.”

“I remember the sun was high in the sky and the clearing held a holy quiet, like no human feet had ever marred its face. So, of course I followed.”

“…my parents’ divorce agreement, a tarot deck, an armadillo that sang a funny song when you squeezed its belly…”

“He’s not unreasonable, he tells me. But he’s genuinely alarmed by the extent of the first-round edits.”

“The sky peels back like a tinfoil lid and something putrid creeps in...”