I Left My House Empty Three Days Before Christmas

another.

By the time I hit the bridge, the phone looked like a slot machine.

I pulled into a gas station near Mount Pleasant, got out, and stood by the pump breathing cold air that smelled like gasoline and pine mulch. A man in a Santa hat was cussing at his card reader two pumps down. A little girl in reindeer pajamas was carrying a bag of cheese puffs continue reading …