Claudia

Claudia

Honour met no other cars on the narrow mountain road, and the few isolated houses she passed looked deserted. Had she gone too far, or not far enough? She should have asked for the exact distance to the turn off. There were no signposts, no addresses. She drove up the mount, across a seemingly uninhabited ridge, and down the other…

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Beached

Beached

Panic never leaves her. It only recedes for intervals, like the tide in Bahía de Navidad. For days, the ocean can lap in benign ripples on the sand, then suddenly rise in swirling breakers that smash to shore, shaking the hotel in its foundation. Monica lies in the penthouse bedroom facing the ocean, trying to make herself get up. It’s a…

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Return

Return

I used to stand at railway tracks, my toes against the ties, while trains approached. I held my breath as they lumbered past, tuned to the whine of metal on metal, their weight a tornado in my chest, their speed reverberating in my heart. “You are crazy,” my brother told me years later. “Don’t you realize how lucky you are…

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Lost Worlds

Lost Worlds

"Your dad's got my car in the shed," she tells me over the phone. "In the shed?" I say. "He knocked down the shed. You mean the driveway." "Yeah, well, over there." I know it's a touchy subject with nonna – the car. It's been four years since she lost her driver's license, but the memory of the sleepless nights…

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He Shoots, Il Segnare

He Shoots, Il Segnare

The tuxedoed violinist takes his position at centre “stage” and launches into heartfelt renditions of the Canadian and Italian national anthems. The gentleman to his right, fittingly dressed in formal black with white, reverently places his hand over his heart. When the last notes of Il Canto degli Italiani waft up to the rafters, respectful claps of wood against ice…

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