“Cross-Stitch” by Nancy Allen

A new story by alumna Nancy Allen (fiction, ’12) appears online in The Quotable:

Cross-Stitch

In 1951, the “luck of the Lyzens” became a
common saying in Ontario’s Upper Bruce
Peninsula and is occasionally still heard.

Sophia Lyzen lingered—luxuriated—on the floaty edge of wakefulness. Her parents wouldn’t roust her from beneath the down comforter until they’d finished telling each other their dreams. Coffee and dreams: it was ritual. Today the voices from the kitchen were barely audible, were, in fact, whispers. Whispers? Her mother’s words fierce, urgent, then came a big emptiness, tagged by her father’s guttural murmur, and another crashing stream of Ukrainian from her mother.

Leaving her little brother asleep, Sophia climbed out of the warmth.

…

Continue reading online.