“There’s just been a whole lot of dying lately,” Angela said between sips of her large green tea with three ice cubes added (so she could drink it today, she’d told the barista adding, you know how HOT that water is). “How do you mean,” David asked. He was drinking a large Americano. He didn’t care for this brand of coffee shop but Angela had made the suggestion. “I mean, Anne, sure. That was a shock. That one hit hard….
Paul Martin’s cafe table basked in late-afternoon sunshine. He sat alone, sipping at a glass of Oregon Pinot Noir, eyes closed as he stared up into the lowering sun. A mini-Christmas tree adorned each table on the cafe’s patio, tiny LED lights barely visible in the bright sunlight. He’d been at this cafe in the neighborhood a handful of miles northeast of downtown San Diego a few years before. Kate had been with him then. It was her neighborhood. The…
The jagged peaks of the mountains surrounding the valley stretched the clear sky between them like the skin of deep blue drum. The sun, pausing at the zenith, cast a shadowless bright light on the dark ice of the frozen lake in the valley’s center. A dozen or more kids and a handful of adults swarmed over the dark ice like atoms, racing from end to end of the oversized rink chasing the darting of a jet black puck. Aside…