I Left My House Empty Three Days Before Christmas

cheerfully about southern drivers.

Pat asked no nosy questions.

Just, “How’s the hostage situation?”

“Contained,” I said.

She nodded like that covered it.

Around noon I called my neighbor, Mrs. Talbert, because if there was one woman on my street who’d know exactly what had happened in my driveway, it was her. She was seventy-three, wore zip-up house dresses continue reading …