Mother Courage

Setting: An oral surgeon’s office in the second-wealthiest county in the United States. On one wall are paintings of pitchers and bottles. On another, a huge ugly abstract painting with a black frame. In front of the black-framed picture sits a woman, 32, with blonde hair and dark roots, and dirty black patent-leather shoes. She […]

Have Two

I have two stacks of vocabulary tests in my hands, standing at the front of the room, and one of my bolder students says, to delay things, “So, what’re you doin’ this weekend, Ms Schurman?” “Well,” I say, “One of my friends is turning eighty today, and I’m going to his party.” I […]