“Since the Accident: A Story,” by Michael Croley

What at first the reader perceives as a trauma sustained from a car crash later burrows deeper into character aspects of integrity and honesty and the quiet conflict with her spouse. Secrets and the difficulty of communicating truth fester below the accumulating snow of this winter tale. The story unfolds a common enough life of a middle class couple in a small town where there are expectations about starting a family. But something’s wrong. Read the story here at Narrative Magazine to find the clues about this woman’s internal dilemma.

"Washed Away," by Michael Croley

Last December 2008, the news was filled with a story from Kingston, Tennessee when a dike burst from a holding pond of a coal fired power plant. The result was a devastating release of 3 million cubic yards of coal ash containing arsenic and lead. In this story a similar devastation of land and life occurs with the added fuel of a young marriage entering the territory of relationship erosion. What I like about the young wife, a Korean woman straddling two cultures as well as her relationship with her husband and his parents, is the insecurity and regrets she expresses. She has a prescient awareness of the discord ahead of her. There are many wonderful lines in this story that suggest the emotional toxicity this couple is treading, for example, “In the distance the sludge was moving with the creeks. Two ingredients not meant to make anything.” Read the story here in Narrative Magazine and look for the novel in progress After the Sun Fell from which this story is taken.