Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars and a Missing Name on a Ledger

horseshoe pits, their voices carrying softly across the lawn in the midday heat.

I found a bench under a large eucalyptus tree, its bark peeling away in long, gray strips that smelled of oil and rain when the wind blew. I set the box down beside me, resting my hands on my knees.

At two o’clock, the shadow of the eucalyptus tree had shifted across the continue reading …