The snow fell like fading memories. Fast flakes. Then… gone. Brumpumpum bumps. The struggling motor moaned like a ghost in the dark. Dark? Why was the sky not dark? Where was the moon… the stars? My blinking eyes were hazy against the orange sky. It was not yet golden – not yet gone. Me, lonely […]

1992: It’s middle school, and everybody feels awkward. The Providence Public School system is doing what it can with its resources. School lunch is the highlight of the day. Many families fall below the poverty line. They’re able to gather, eat, and socialize. The walls are brick and brutalistic by design. The tables are oval-shaped […]

An old man sat on a plastic chair on his patio, drinking sweet, black coffee. He was thinking about the same skinny, barefoot girl. They ran around together when he was eighteen. He hadn’t seen her in years – ever since her family moved to the capital. But hardly a week went by where he […]

Wine was in his blood. It was a reputation that traced back to the old world, to his grandfather. Dino DeLorenzo’s romantic stories – told over the dinner table in broken English – inspired him as a boy. That night, Dino the Third decided he would also become a winemaker, celebrating his semi-retirement. Even at […]