Among the many residents of the Green Gardens Living Center, there are twelve silver-haired ladies, each one older and more apple-faced than the next. Their rooms are all in a row. They do not go in for water aerobics or bus outings to the casino. They keep among themselves, playing bridge or...

Perhaps it would open to the clean-combed green of the Queen’s croquet ground, rife with jolly flamingos and hedgehogs. Perhaps it would open to the Sugar Pyramids near the Kingdom of Dreams outside Oz. Or, perhaps instead the door would open from the never-tree, which grows and is then cut down...

Everything is temporary. Through the layers of silk organza, she could feel the warmth of his hand on the small of her back. He was as handsome as she’d imagined, and his hands were even stronger and more capable. There was something golden about him under the skin. Her wish had been a simple...

Once, she was compassionate, loving and kind. Once we found a speckled mouse in the bulk foods section of the Co-op. Tuesday scooped it in the palm of her hand and deposited it safely in the green median of the parking lot. By the time we’d finished shopping, it had only made it about two feet...

Bisbee’s bottom itched hot with carpet burns, and her shoulder was scratched pink, courtesy of the keyboard tray. She was happily rife with bruises and bites and, in fact, dressed more conservatively now than before the misadventures began, lest she spike the curiosity of Human Resources. But her...

I live economically. It’s why I often choose to holiday in Cortina d’Ampezzo. There, it’s enough for me to be seen entering Hotel Cristallo from the heli-pad. I don’t need a helicopter of my own — just the reputation that I do. The one extravagance I allow myself is my man Golding: bodyguard,...