Serena

by Ron Rash

her eyes were the color of pockets of morning fog the workers called bluejon, like mist filling two inward-probing cavities.

The sky was jay-bird blue, the day warmer than any in a week, but the chimney smoke wasn’t rising but blowing down, so a change in the weather was coming, maybe by afternoon.

You have to tell the bees he died. They’ll leave if you don’t, Widow Jenkins had told Rachel the day of her father’s funeral. It was something the old folks believed, and though Rachel wasn’t sure if it was true or not she’d done it.

altruism is invariably a means to conceal one’s personal failures.”

“You men notice so little, Pemberton. Physical strength is your gender’s sole advantage.”

“She says the phrase is indeed from Britain. The feathers referred to are the fletching of an arrow. If you’ve feathered into your opponent, the arrow’s so deep the feather itself has entered the body.”