Spare Parts

She wasn't paying attention. That's what happened to Mabel Knickerbocker the day she died. On the eve of her 50 th birthday, she was, as usual, doing things for other people. It's how she lived her life. It's how she died, too. By the time Timothy Knickerbocker could talk, his mother Mabel had already had five other Knickerbocker children. Each one a right mess of problems with talking back and acting out and being all around nuisances whenever Mabel needed them to behave. Timothy, being the kind of child who was, above all things, good-natured, never understood the lengths to which his brothers and sisters went to torment poor Mabel. "You're always my good child, boy," Mabel always said to Timothy. "I've been trying to get a good child all this time. Now that I got it right, I'm done birthing babies!" And she kept her word, though no one really knows if she would have, had her husband Hank not suddenly disappeared. Other than Hank, his...

Tamara Park is set against the backdrop of a small city skyline with big city envy. The name of the small city is also Tamara Park, which leads one to believe that someone didn't have a lot of imagination when they named the playground at the city's center. Aside from the four rusting hunter green benches that serve as both resting places and a separation barrier, there is also a three-child swing set, one slide and a jungle gym. Time and weather have peeled the once colorful paints from the wood and metal structures. These days few, if any, of the local children come to Tamara Park to play. Not since that day last March when Molly Becker claimed someone grabbed her from a swing and threw her to the ground. The only problem with Molly's story is that when she looked up from the ground, not one other person was around, except for her mother, who sat a way's off on one of the benches knitting a winter hat. Since Molly Becker's fall, several people have made claims abo...