Answering the wrong question Diane dragged her sleep-deprived body into the kitchen just after eight in the morning. With her hair a mess and bags under her eyes, she offered a mumbled good morning to her mother. She poured a cup of coffee, and Mom asked, “So, what’s wrong?” in that soft motherly tone. Diane plopped into a kitchen chair and paused before starting, “You remember I told you about Mike?” “The twenty-five-year-old electrician who just remodeled his kitchen by hand and had to...

Where dreams are broken I walked into the law offices of Bennett & Associates. A young brunette woman greeted me with a smile, “Mr. Carver?” she asked. I nodded, and she asked me to follow her to a large conference room. There sat Mom and my half-sister Rachel on one side of the table. I smiled at Mom’s Aunt Mable and her husband, Uncle Todd, who sat opposite them while ignoring my mother. Along the back wall were two men I didn’t know. Mom grimaced at me, “What are you doing here? “I...

Jake’s long blink opened to a flash of blinding light, and then red taillights whirled in front of him. The sound of metal crumbling scared his ears as a final bright light blinded him, and then everything went dark as death. In the blackness, faint beeps and mummers echoed in his dreams, sounding like a life no longer his reality. He awoke to a stark white room with no walls, floors, or ceiling. A man appeared next to him without distinction or purpose. The soft baritone voice spoke...