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    Reflections: Michigan 2015
    Reflections: Michigan 2015
    Reflections: Michigan 2015
    Ebook79 pages1 hour

    Reflections: Michigan 2015

    By Zimbell House Publishing

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    Reflections: Michigan 2015 is an annual anthology celebrating Michigan featuring a collection of short stories from some of our new American authors.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZimbell House Publishing
    Release dateMar 1, 2015
    ISBN9781942818243
    Reflections: Michigan 2015
    Author

    Zimbell House Publishing

    Zimbell House Publishing is an independent publishing company that wishes to partner with new voices to help them become Quality Authors.Our goal is to partner with our authors to help publish & promote quality work that readers will want to read again and again, and refer to their friends.

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      Book preview

      Reflections - Zimbell House Publishing

      Reflections: Michigan 2015

      An Anthology Celebrating Michigan

      A Zimbell House Publishing Anthology

      Distributed by Smashwords

      This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. All characters appearing in this work are the product of the individual author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the written permission of the publisher.

      For permission requests, write to the publisher: Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

      Zimbell House Publishing, LLC

      PO Box 1172

      Union Lake, Michigan 48387

      http://www.ZimbellHousePublishing.com

      ©: 2015 Zimbell House Publishing, LLC

      Published by Zimbell House Publishing, LLC

      Distributed by Smashwords

      All Rights Reserved

      Electronic ISBN: 9781942818243

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2015900454

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

      Table of Contents

      Acknowledgements

      After the Fall

      Blessed By Gitchee Manitou

      The Cottage

      Harry and Stevie

      Off the Bluff of Big Bay

      Snowballs

      About the Authors

      More From Zimbell House Publishing

      Reflections: Michigan 2015 is a literary journal produced by Zimbell House Publishing showcasing the talents of new American writers.

      Within these pages are short stories celebrating Michigan. We hope you enjoy reading these new authors as much as we enjoyed bringing their new voices to you.

      The top three winning submissions are:

      First Place: Edward Ahern for The Cottage

      Second Place: Caitlin Siem for Off the Bluff of Big Bay

      Third Place: James Vescovi for Harry & Stevie

      Acknowledgements

      The production of this anthology could not be accomplished without the dedication and literary expertise of our Zimbell House team.

      Our sincere thanks goes out to everyone who submitted for this anthology, for without you, there would be no new voices to tempt us.

      After the Fall

      By John Vicary

      For three full months after the fall, Jem’s mother cried herself to sleep. After that, she didn’t shed another tear. It was as if she’d wrung herself dry from all that weeping. Years later, Jem thought the same thing when she sat, stony-faced, at her own sister’s funeral and never so much as sniffled. But then he remembered those long nights during the move, and he thought maybe he understood.

      Momma didn’t cry when Metairie went under for the last time, either, but Jem did. It meant sharing his bedroom with his cousin Willie. It was only a matter of time, honey, she said. That place flooded in the best of times. We make room for family. We’re lucky that we can.

      That’s easy for her to say, Jem thought. She doesn’t have to sleep with Willie.

      It was easy for her to say, then. Momma needed Aunt Arlene as much as Aunt Arlene needed a place to stay, since Daddy had left to find work. The house felt empty with just the two of them, and while Momma clucked her tongue and patted Aunt Arlene on the back, the lines around her mouth eased just the tiniest bit to have her sister near her again.

      The lines on Momma’s face returned when the tidewater of the newly renegotiated banks of what used to be Lake Pontchartrain crept north. Jem charted the course of the rising and receding, that primordial rhythm that only the moon could call, but for all his worry the water would have its way.

      By the time Picayune fell, Momma must have known that Daddy wasn’t coming home. There weren’t any jobs in the South, and there was nothing to come home to, now, anyway. Jem would sometimes look west, into the setting sun, and he would imagine his dad in an apple orchard or maybe a lemon grove. He had no reason to think that Daddy worked with his hands or that he lived in the west. He didn’t even know if they had lemon trees there, but it gave him comfort to imagine it, so he did.

      We have to leave here, Jo.

      Jem could hear his Aunt Arlene through the thin plasterboard walls without listening very hard. It had never bothered him before; for years he’d heard his parents’ murmured conversations, their words of love, the comforting susurration of their whispers and their companionable silences. Now he ached to turn away, but he was trapped between Willie and the wall.

      I can’t leave my home! Momma cried.

      I know how it feels. I’m so sorry, darling, but you know we can’t stay. We’ll make a fresh start. I have a friend in Detro—

      You want me to live on charity? What’s the matter with you? Momma’s voice grew louder.

      "It wasn’t charity when I came

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