The Berry Pickers

by Amanda Peters

There is a code among the dying: let the living speak. They have longer to atone for it.

MARRIAGE IS A FUNNY THING. THERE ARE SO MANY people in the world, and you decide to commit the rest of your life, the rest of your emotional energy, to just one.

Prejudice runs deep and offers no apologies in small towns.

ON THE PRAIRIES, it’s said that you can watch your dog run away for ten days.

Time quickens the older you get, as if the universe is trying to push you toward the finish line, to make room for the younger, the stronger, to mark your brief place in history and move on.