Writer
My name tag said “Volunteer”, but I was working there. I was a tutor in the Homework Center, an after-school program at the public library for kids K-8 to come and get help with homework or practice their reading and math skills. They’d run out of “Tutor” tags before I started. I was given a … Continue reading Homework
“Are you a detective?” A guy sitting a few seats down at the bar asks this question to my friend, who has just finished scribbling a few lines in a small flip notebook. “No,” my friend answers. He slides the notebook back into his breast pocket. “You should’ve said yes,” I tell him. “You have … Continue reading Talking to Strangers
I’ve always been leery of a suburban existence. Think: house with a half-dozen bedrooms, two living rooms, bar in the basement, recessed lighting. High ceilings and sprawling, plain grass lawns. Open-concept kitchen. You know what I mean. Foyers trigger my fight-or-flight. So I told myself when we moved into this house that it was still … Continue reading Suburban
On a warm day in early November, I walk from the paved Metroparks path that runs parallel to the road, and step into the shade where a new path forks off, marked with a “no bikes” sign. My baby is asleep in her wrap, warm against my body. Carrying her like this reminds me of … Continue reading In Mundo Cervorum
Remember those “Dear America” books in middle school? They were fictional diaries from the point of view of young characters living through historical events. Those books cycled through the school library like nobody’s business, and I was certainly one of the girls who pawed through them many times, further fraying the ribbon bookmark that came … Continue reading Dear Diary / Dear Stranger / Dear Void
I had begun to feel like nothing would change. Like we would be forever stuck in an era of "These Uncertain Times" or what-the-fuck-ever. (There are many phrases I'd love to never hear again, thanks.) But of course, change happened. As it always does. I found out just after New Year's that I'm pregnant, due … Continue reading a view from the other side
August & September 2020 The three of us—Patrick, me, and our friend Jake—piled into my car for an Ohio road trip. It was early August. I sat in the backseat, the guys in the front. Patrick drove while Jake and I took turns playing music. “God, it just feels good to be going somewhere,” Jake … Continue reading Plague Diary, Part 5: “Are You Ready?”
I walked through the wide-open side door and climbed the steps to the upstairs half of a slightly scrummy duplex in one of Cleveland’s west side suburbs. It was the end of May, and my sister-in-law, Margaret, was turning twenty-two. Margaret greeted me and ushered me through the kitchen into the rest of the house, … Continue reading A Profile of Margaret : “I’m Not Really a Mess”
April 24, 2020 I sit in my car, parked in the middle of the bustling grocery store parking lot. I’m trying to gather the motivation to actually get out of the car and walk into the building, grab a sanitized cart, follow arrow stickers on the floor through a maze of one-way aisles crowded with … Continue reading Plague Diary, Part 4: “Don’t call me at home, ’cause I won’t be there.”
Hannah Williams 