Joyce Carol Oates

Early shift is 6:30 A.M. which was when I arrived at the elder care facility at Eau Claire where I have been an orderly for two years. Maybe thirty minutes after that, when the elderly nuns body was discovered in her bed.

RAY CASEY WAS DRINKING

The enemy. Waiting for you. When you leave the hospital

I did not like these Russian dolls, that made me feel slightly sick. I thought of how a woman carries a baby inside her and how terrifying it would be if that baby carried another baby inside it.

For here is the injustice: only if you are killed, are you “innocent.” If you fight for your life, you are “guilty.”

the woman has smiled so hard and so often there are sharp crow’s-feet beside her eyes.

but high grades seemed to me a kind of embarrassment, the consequence of hard work as hard work seemed but the consequence of desperation.

life, there are predators, and prey. A predator may require bait, and prey may mistake bait for sustenance.