Sublime

In the afternoon, Nic calls. He tells me everything—he has relapsed, is using meth and heroin. I have rehearsed my response. I shakily tell him that there’s nothing I can do. It’s up to him. I say that the police are searching for him, that his mother reported him missing to the Santa Monica police, and that the Marin sheriffs are patrolling our ho

Gilbert

at least where her parents had settled

When we emerge before sunset, an imperious moon hovers over the mountain. I look at it and understand that I have not held out hope for this new program, not because I don’t hope that it works and not because it cannot work, but because I am terrified to my core to hope again. I go to a bookstore and buy Zadie Smith’s novel White Teeth. I want to e

Arrowsmith,

As a baby he could go for days without sleeping, and the “terrible-two” temper tantrums persisted through toddlerhood and seemed to grow proportionately with each birthday. He was extremely oppositional and his mother and father couldn’t find a way to discipline him, although they tried every parenting technique and spent a great deal of time in pa