by Jack Stratton | May 21, 2026 | Uncategorized
Shelby pressed “send,” then closed her eyes and prayed. She looked in the mirror again. The big mirror on the wall across from her bed was one of her few real luxuries, wide and tall and taking up most of the wall of her small bedroom. She liked sitting in the middle...
by Jack Stratton | May 21, 2026 | Uncategorized
The Proper Fingering is Essential When Attempting the Works of Johann Sebastian Bach VIBRATIONS are odd things. Alone in her room at fifteen, Charlotte played for herself. She played because no one was home and she could take the towel from over the strings and just...
by Jack Stratton | May 21, 2026 | Uncategorized
There is a nondescript wooden door at the end of one of the long marble hallways of the Main Branch of the New York Public Library that you can only enter if you have the right knock and the right word and a particular pin on your lapel. Knowledge of the “Private...
by Jack Stratton | May 21, 2026 | Uncategorized
Though his elaborate instruction seemed to imply otherwise, the prince was indeed a very light sleeper. Thus, the slight creaking of the bed usually roused him from his slumber in the morning. Nevertheless, he kept his eyes closed and did not reveal his awakening. As...
by Jack Stratton | May 21, 2026 | Uncategorized
We did not speak. It was something we decided early on, in emails and texts and our conversations at the café that sat right in between our apartment buildings. One by one, we took away each of these lines of communication. As our negotiations went on and the...