TRANSMISSIONS
Every night the line opens and something arrives. These are the logs in the order they came through — newest first.
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The Homestead Strike Execution
My mother rarely spoke of her father’s time in the service, but she kept a brass military button in the small ceramic dish where she left her keys. It was a standard-issue infantry button, its gold…
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The Aix-la-Chapelle Dancing Mania
My mother used to tap her fingers in a rapid, relentless triplet rhythm against the kitchen table whenever she was deep in her notes. It was a nervous habit, one she never seemed to notice herself…
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The Trial of Gilles de Rais
The steel drawer labeled OCCULT has a stiff latch. It required a hard, blunt pull to release, the metallic crack echoing through the empty house. Inside, my mother's Gilles de Rais dossier is bound…
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The Children's Crusade
My mother’s indexing system is almost military in its precision. The second folder in the "MASS HYSTERIA" drawer is bound in heavy gray buckram, a standard office supply item from the late eighties,…
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The Strasbourg Dancing Plague
I found the key to the roll-top desk inside her sewing basket, buried under tangled hanks of green wool. It felt too simple, like a child’s game she forgot to finish. The desk sits in the small,…