Scribe
Alyson Hagy
"XXX"
"Elisabeth's hands are resting on her stomach. She feels every vibration under her skin. The hands rest there with the same expectation as during her pregnancy— that movement is on its way, that the child will swim towards the hands, that it will turn there, twist, push, roll."
"A crack echoed through the boreal landscape, a momentary chaos in the still afternoon air. In the near distance, a large bull moose fell to its side."
"I would like to see you soon in case you have the freedom was the note I sent to him while in an altered state. No reply came."
"She used to actually say a little prayer every time she heard sirens at night in this city. She would pray for whoever might be bleeding. Now every time she hears sirens she wonders how much can naturally leave the body at the same time."
"There it is, flagging in my mind’s eye. 1993. As though it bore more weight than the years that came before or after, as if all time weren’t equally fleeting and its passage—already twenty-five years—impartial."
"What were my memories of rivers, now that I lived on an island whose thoughts were turned seawards, where rivers looked shallow and pretty, noticeable only when they frayed into flats, or cut deep channels as they flowed out to sea?"
"Bella Altamirano entered the shop called El Descanso, owned by Rosa Quintero, her best friend. She greeted Rosa with a kiss that the shopkeeper returned automatically while wrapping up some herbs in newspaper and counting out the money a young girl was paying for them."
"I am staring out the window of my office and thinking about death when I remember the way Paiute smells in the early morning in the summer before the sun burns the dew off the fescue."
"It's our second day in New York City. We're with Dennis Lomack. Mom is in St. Vincent's, resting. She has recently done something very stupid and I'm the one who found her."
"It was a good thought for a Good War. I have to say: Once those wrinkly little bums in the L-Towers all over the world, our state ministers (stale ministers! Ho), did well their thing. Their thing was to govern with imagination at all times, and élan."
"It’s not true there were no casualties on the ground when the space shuttle fell apart over Texas. Some things happened that morning, some happened later."
"They pull up to the hospital in a red car, can’t tell the make or year. There’s something familiar in them, even after they step out. I’m behind the check-in desk as usual and can see them from the window."
"I never heard the siren. I slept through the rising wind and the tree branches wrenching loose and colliding with the roof."
Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature
For the past decade, Literary Hub has brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall. But our future relies on you. In return for a donation, you’ll get an ad-free reading experience, exclusive editors’ picks, book giveaways, and our coveted Joan Didion Lit Hub tote bag. Most importantly, you’ll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving on the internet.