Category: STORY

Vincent Hale arrived at the Marlowe Tower forty minutes early and heard his fiancée say his name through the half-open apartment door.

Vincent Reyes arrived forty minutes early and found Mia sitting beside the service elevator with a suitcase between her knees.

The brass key landed in my oatmeal just as my brother called me a gold digger.

Vanessa placed a blue biscuit tin between the oatmeal bowl and my mother’s trembling hand.

Vanessa slid a blue envelope across the breakfast table, and the brass key taped to it scraped through the syrup.

Vanessa dropped a blue hospice binder onto the breakfast table and smiled like she had already won.

Vanessa dropped a blue folder into the oatmeal, and my father’s brass medication timer sank beneath the cinnamon.

Vanessa slid a blue folder across the breakfast table, beside Dad’s red enamel rooster timer.

Vanessa dropped a tiny brass key into my coffee and said, “You’re done caring for Mom.”