CHAPTER 1: THE BACKDOOR SYMPHONY The brass knob on my back door turned with a dry, familiar click. I had my tote bag slung over my left shoulder, my fingers still stiff from carrying three bags of collard greens from the Sweet Auburn Curb Market. The community board meeting on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive […]
CHAPTER 1: THE COLD CORNER The folding chair sat directly behind the caterer’s silver warming trays, wedged between the kitchen door frame and a stack of extra wine cases. I smoothed the heavy silk of my burnt-orange wrap dress, adjusted the gold clip-on earrings David bought me for our twentieth anniversary, and kept my spine […]
CHAPTER 1: THE WATCHER ON EDGEWOOD AVENUE At 7:15 every morning, the espresso machine at Brew and Bloom spat steam against the glass while Atlanta scraped the ice off its windshields. I sat at the small corner table, wrapping both hands around a thick porcelain mug that had long since gone lukewarm. Across from me, […]
CHAPTER 1: THE COLD LOCKOUT The air off Cascade Road carried the sharp scent of turning leaves and wood smoke, but inside the foyer, the house smelled like fresh wax and polished brass. My hand rested on the solid walnut table in the entryway—the one I had spent four days sanding back down to the […]
CHAPTER 1: THE COLD WELCOME The damp Carolina gravel crunched under my tires as I rounded the final bend near the Morsville marina. I turned my 2012 Subaru onto the access road, the familiar smell of wet pine and turned earth filling the cabin through the cracked driver’s window. I shifted my right hand on […]
CHAPTER 1: THE COLD PASSENGER The air inside Delta Flight 1408 smelled of stale coffee and wet wool. I kept my left thumb pressed firmly against the edge of my armrest, counting the steady rhythm of the cabin air recurrants to keep my pulse below eighty. Beside me, Elijah’s knuckles were white where he gripped […]
CHAPTER 1: THE ALTARS COLD EDGE Three hundred people stop breathing at the exact same second, and not one of them looks at the groom. The organ key stays pressed down under the organist’s thumb, holding a single, heavy note that vibrates right through the hardwood floorboards of the church on Martin Luther King Drive. […]
CHAPTER 1: THE HOUSEWARMING AMBUSH The wheels of two heavy suitcases dragged across my brand-new oak floor, and nobody in that full living room made a sound. I stood by the granite island with a condensation-dusted glass of cider in my hand, watching the condensation bead up and run down onto my knuckles. Six years […]
CHAPTER 1: THE FROSTLINE ACCORD The temperature dropped three degrees in twenty minutes. Standing at the sharp outer curve of Ridgeview Drive, I could smell the sharp, metallic tang of an impending freeze. The road wasn’t going to wait. Every year, this specific stretch turned into an oil-slick mirror before midnight. I rolled the brass […]
CHAPTER 1: THE MARKED PERIMETER The heavy brass survey stake sat heavy in my right palm, its cold edges pressing into my calluses as I walked the boundary line behind my garage. Three weeks ago, I paid six hundred dollars out of my own pocket to have the county mark every inch of this dirt. […]
